Mahiliou: hostel dwellers are forced to sign in support of pro-governmental candidate twice
At first the canvassing with the use of
the administrative resource was conducted by the warden and the upbringer of
the hostel in Kasmanautau Street,
45. Using threats, they forced the people to come to the office of the warden
with their passports and sign in support of the nomination of the prosecutor of
the Mahilio region Eduard Siankevich as a candidate for the Parliament.
“They collected signatures in such a way for two days. When I came to the
superintendant’s office to sign in support of the prosecutor I asked whether
the warden and the upbringer were members of Siankevich’s electoral team. They
answered nothing – they had no badges or ID’s of members of the electoral team
with them,” says a dweller of the hostel, an activist of the Belarusian Social
Democratic Party (Hramada) Mikalai Zalozny.
Several days after this incident he was made to sign in support of Siankevich
once again. “I told them they I had already signed in his support. However, I
was answered that the signatures weren’t collected by members of the electoral
team and therefore they were invalid, that’s why it was necessary that I put my
signature again. This time the women had certificates of members of the
electoral team,” ads Mr. Zalozny.
The pressurization on the activist has increased recently after his boss, the head
of hostels Pavel Shyshou found that Zalozny was a member of the electoral team
of opposition candidate Leanid Padbiaretski and required written explanations
about it.
After this Mikalai Zalozny was twice deprived of the wage bonus. On 8 August he
was transferred to another place of work and was transferred to part-time work.
Moreover, everyday his brass composes reports that he doesn’t implement his
duties in order to make him quit on his own.
The activist says he is going to apply to court to protect his rights. He also
states that he has evidence of office abuse, corruption and misappropriation of
property by Shyshou and is going to apply to the procuracy in connection with
these facts.
“Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”
