Supreme Court turned down claim of Belarusian Party of Workers

The court refused to consider a claim of the founder of the Belarusian Party of Workers (BPW) against the Ministry of Justice which suspended the process of the party registration.

‘The Supreme Court explains its refusal with the fact that according to the law on political parties, a decision on delay in registration can’t be considered by court’, BelaPAN learnt from Aliaksandr Bukhvostau, the head of the organizing committee of the BPW.

Bear in mind that on 8 September the Ministry of Justice made a decision to suspend registration of the Belarusian Party of Workers and demanded to prepare a number of additional documents by 21 September. The BPW founders say the demand of the Ministry of Justice is unlawful and refused to provide these documents.

Bukhvostau doesn’t exclude that the Ministry of Justice can refuse to register the party. ‘The party founders are pressurized. The Ministry of Justice uses its usual means – local administrations and police departments examine the details of the founding congress held. They apply psychological pressure demanding us to deny our participation in creation of the party,’ Bukhvostau said.

The politician says if the Ministry of Justice refuses to register the party, this decision will be appealed against in the Supreme Court.

‘We still think the list of documents we prepared for the Ministry of Justice is enough to register the party. We will provide the court with the necessary documents which will show that sessions on proposing delegates for the founding congress were held in accordance with the decision of the organizing committee,’ Bukhvostau said.