For Freedom activist refused registration as candidate

Spartyunaya constituency election commission number 49 (the town of Rechytsa) refused to register local ‘For Freedom’ member Andrei Stryzhak a candidate for the Homel Regional Council, after 19 out of 168 signatures collected by his campaign team were found invalid. He was later informed by a representative of the local executive authorities that his application had been dismissed due to the absence of the signature of the campaign team’s head on one of the signature sheets.  

The activists says the decision is discriminative. ‘The election commissions should facilitate the work of future candidates, instead of impeding their election activities. When the commission could not figure out if I was constantly or temporary unemployed, they would call me several times and specify the data. In this case, the commissioners could not, or, to be precise, did not want to point out the inaccuracy, a mere clerical error. Moreover, even if the entire sheet had been dismissed, there would have been 152 more signatures, which would be enough for registration,’ says the activist. He believes that the decision violates his right to elect and be elected, guaranteed by the Constitution, and therefore is going to appeal it.

‘Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections’