Vitsebsk: authorities ban a picket calling to boycott the election
The Kastrychnitski
District Executive Committee prohibited the member of the
Conservative-Christian Party Belarusian
Popular Front Yan Dziarzhautsau to hold a picket for boycotting the
presidential election. The formal reason for the ban is that the picket site (Lenin Square) is
allegedly occupied by the electoral picket of the presidential candidate
Uladzimir Niakliayeu.
’One can put even ten different pickets on the square’, says Mr. Dziarzhautsau.
However, I was told that Niakliayeu’s team was holding a picket there. I even
phoned to Uladzimir Aleksenka, the applicant of Niakliayeu’s picket. He was
very surprised and said: ‘You can stand even ten steps or ten meters away from
us. I am not an adherent of boycott, but don’t mind having another picket
nearby.’
Yan Dziarzhautsau intends to apply to court against the unlawful ban.
’By their contradictory decisions the local authorities push us to unlawful
picketing. For instance, Barys Khamaida stands near the so-called ‘blue house’
with boycott posters everyday. He is periodically detained and taken to the
police station for agitating in improper place. However, they don’t let us do
it in the places where such actions are allowed and pretend that the canvassing
is held in a democratic way.’
Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections
