Mahiliou: UDF candidate’s presence "spoiled” the campaign event of the official candidate

Walking by the Square of Stars in the city center, Aliaksei Paulouski saw a youth event organized by city BRSM in support of official candidate Alexander Yushkevich.

Aliaksei Paulouski says he and other candidate were not aware of the event which was taking place. Paulouski did not lose his head. He took out a pack of his leaflet and began to hand them out to passers-by. Inna Karatkevich, head of the local BRSM organization, could not stand that. She started to yell at Aliaksei that he was depraving the youth with his leaflets that had not gone through the state censorship.

“Ms. Karatkevich behaved like a hooligan, she grabbed leaflets with my portrait from the hands of the students, tore them to pieces before their eyes and threw them on the ground. Everyone was shocked by her actions. Then she took out her cell phone and started taking pictures of me – may be she want to intimidate her children and grandchildren with my photo”, -- Paulouski continues.

At this point candidate Yushkevich started to threaten Paulouski that he would complain to the district commission about “wrong” methods of campaigning used by the pro-democratic candidate.

“I did not expect such impudence on the side of Yushkevich and Karatkevich who are upbringing the young generation. They were campaigning and tried to prohibit me do the same. In addition, they showed a bad example to the younger generation, who will have to restore the country from the ruins where it had been led by the current leadership".

Besides that, the UDF candidate hopes, the prosecutor’s office and the district election commission will react on his complaint which he has filed about the incident and provide him with equal opportunities to explain his platform and political views.

Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections