Homel: Candidate Uladzimir Tseliapun’s Registration Restored

According to RFE/RL

On 11 January Homel regional election commission annulled a ruling of constituency election commission #43 for deprival of the candidate to Homel regional deputy soviet Uladzimir Tseliapun of registration as a candidate.

On 5 January, on the eve of arrival of Tseliapun’s proxy Aliaksandr Milinkevich to Mazyr the constituency election commission accused Mr. Tseliapun of ‘production and distribution of information and materials that foment national enmity’ and deprived of candidate registration.

‘I was excluded from the election race because in my agitation leaflet I wrote that the wages of workers of Mazyr city executive committees had already become equal to those of workers of oil-processing plant. The working conditions are much better than conditions at many plants of Mazyr,’ commented Uladzimir Tseliapun.

Homel regional election commission decided that the content of Tseliapun’s leaflets ‘is somewhat tendentious and contains some biased generalizations and conclusions, but in general reflects the views of the candidate to deputy seat and doesn’t contradict to the Election Code’. It is the first precedent in Homel region when the regional election commission reversed a decision taken by an inferior commission.

Mr. Tseliapun, in his turn, thinks that the deprival of registration was connected to the appointed meeting of his electors with Aliaksandr Milinkevich, his proxy and a former candidate to presidential position. Now the authorities have nothing to worry about as the period of electoral meetings is already over.