Authorities Create Obstacles to Registration of Initiative Groups of Opposition’s Candidates

On 4 November the opposition activist Uladzimir Navasiad applied for registration of his initiative group on collecting of signatures for his nomination as a candidate to Minsk City Deputy Soviet at Minsk election circuit #11. Within an hour after the application was passed, the election commissions made telephone calls to all members of the initiative group and asked them whether they joined it on their own free will and understood the responsibility for this step.

‘Today I have been surprised to find that the commission had no blank of applications for registration of initiative groups. However, Belarusians are used to coming to polyclinics with their own syringes and bring their own plates and spoons to hospitals. That’s why I came to the commission with my own blank and pen. Hopefully, it won’t be considered as a misuse of the means that were issued to me for the electoral campaign and won’t result in non-registration of my group. What concerns the telephone calls to members of my initiative group, we are quite surprised they managed to do it so quickly,’ commented Mr Navasiad to the press-service of Charter’97.