Salihorsk: collection of signatures in student dormitories is banned

On 1 March the Salihorsk district commission didn’t grant the complaint of the initiative group of Aliaksei Valabuyeu against actions of workers of Salihorsk mining chemical technical school and declared it groundless.

The administration of the educational establishment stated that members of the initiative group weren’t let in the school dormitory to prevent the unlawful collection of signatures among the under-aged students who dwelt there; and added that the collectors of signatures must observe the internal regulations of the dormitory that says nothing about visits of any persons except for the students’ parents.

Mr. Yakimovich, the commission Chairperson, stated that the dormitory must be considered as an educational establishment and therefore referred to the places where collection of signatures was banned by an appropriate ruling of the executive committee. That’s why he even proposed to issue the initiative group with a warning for violation of the rules of collecting the signatures so that they ‘wouldn’t write any applications anymore, as non-scheduled sittings bother the commission members’.

However, the commission confined itself to dismissing the pretensions of the initiative group as groundless. Aliaksei Valabuyeu’s headquarters states that this decision will be appealed at a higher instance, and emphasized that it was a matter of principle, as the necessary number of signatures had been collected already.

Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections