Babruisk: independent candidate is not allowed to hold electoral meeting at bank

On 12 September a candidate at Babruisk-Leninskaya constituency #78 Alena Miadzvedzeva came to the administration of the Priorbank together with some OSCE observers. She wanted to hold an electoral meeting. The bank manager agreed to it and even started gathering people, but when Alena Miadzedzeva went down to the bank hall, she was met by the head of the guard, who stated that she had no right to hold any meetings there. He motivated the refusal with the fact that the administration of the bank needed to have an agreement of the head of Belarusbank whic lent the house to Priorbank.

‘Most probably, the head of the guard managed to phone to the local authorities and was ordered to disrupt the meeting’, said Alena Miadzvedzeva. ‘The manager of Priorbank didn’t even understand why I was prohibited to hold the meeting and proposed that I waited for the head of Belarusbank who was to return in several hours. Pitifully enough, the head of the guard paid no attention to the presence of the OSCE observers. Of course, the observers were very surprised to see such ‘equal conditions’ for different candidates, as the official candidate Alena Shamal has already held several meetings on the agreement of Belarusbank.’

Human rights activists for free elections