Oppositional candidates are not admitted to TV
The candidates representing the authorities are often showed on TV while the opposition still have no access to the air.
Valiantina Kavaliova, an authorities’ candidate for the House of Representatives in Svetlahorsk, was shown on TV, earlier, Lad TV channel showed a report about her at the stage of collecting signatures. The democratic candidate Siarhei Daineka running at the same constituency, is ignored by the official media, the campaign Human Rights Activists for Free Elections reports.
Valiantina Kavaliova, a member of the House of Representatives since 2004, is carrying on propaganda campaign again. Just after a session of the district election commission, where she was registered as a candidate for the new election, she went to a district teachers’ conference. Similar conferences are held annually, but an MP in the Presidium is a rare guest.
Most of members of polling stations election commissions are teachers. Speaking at the conference, the head of the education department of the Svetlahorsk district executive committee Liudmila Vialichka paid attention to the fact that ‘the new school year will be a year of election for the House of Representatives’. Then V.Kavaliova went up to the rostrum to congratulate the attendants.
It was a ground to show V.Kavaliova in local news on Ranak TV on 28 August. The attendants of the conference say some photos of Kavaliova were taken. So, a photo of her will probably soon appear in local Ranak-Plus weekly. However, the official media have no grounds to show democratic candidate Siarhei Daineka.
According to the website of the Homel region executive commission, Ihar Kashlikau is the director of Ranak TV company. A deputy head of the district executive committee on ideology Siarhei Miarkulau, who is also a chairman of the district election commission, administered the Svetlahorsk media. This post was earlier occupied by V.Kavaliova, who also was a head of the district election commission and even got a medal for ‘elegant election’.
