Homel regional court didn’t grant complaint of BPF member

On 9 April the Homel regional court considered the complaint against the non-registration of Uladzimir Tseliapun, a member of the Belarusian Popular Front Party, as a candidate for the Mazyr district Council of Deputies.

Bear in mind that on 5 April this very court had refused to consider Tseliapun's complaint against the decision of the Homel regional election commission according to which he hadn’t been registered as a candidate, referring to its incompetency to try such cases. However, after distribution of information about the ignorance of Judge M.Nadtochei and addresses to the Central Election Commission concerning the contradiction of this refusal to the election legislation, the panel of judges of the Supreme Court reversed the ruling of the Homel regional court and returned the case for the second trial.

As a result, on 9 April Judge L.Buyankova considered the case and upheld the decision of the district and the regional election commissions by which Mr. Tseliapun had been denied registration as a candidate. This court verdict is final and non-appealable.

It's quite interesting that during the trial Judge Buyankova stated that the earlier court ruling concerning the refusal to consider the case would be included in the copy of the verdict, which wasn't done.

The trial was also attended by the secretaries of the district and the regional election commissions, V.Baikova and H.Salanets. The latter delivered a speech at the trial, in which she stated that all Tseliapun's complaints were aimed at undermining the state system – that's how state officials treat a civilized attempt of Uladzimir Tseliapun to defend his electoral rights!

Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections