Main ideologist of Slutsk district calls police to electoral picket
A canvassing picket in support of an activist of
the “Tell the Truth” campaign Aliaksandr Sokalau, held on 11 August near the
“Slutsk” department store, caused an unexpected reaction f the head of the shop
administration and the deputy head of the Slutsk District Executive Committee
on ideology, Larysa Dabravolskaya.
According to the head of Sokalau's electoral team Yuliya Balakir, at about 12.30 a.m. a woman came up
to her, grabbed the informational stand of the candidate and took it aside.
“This mustn't stand on my territory!”, stated the woman who evidently
represented the shop administration. “I explained to her that I didn't violate
the law and proposed to solve the conflict with the assistance of the police,”
says Yuliya.
The woman went away. Several minutes after it the deputy head of the executive
committee on ideology Larysa Dabravolskaya arrived. She attentively examined
the stand, then stepped aside and phoned somewhere.
Soon afterwords a man in civvies came up to Yuliya Balakir and introduced
himself as an officer of the Slutski District Police Department. Though he
didn't show his ID, he demanded that she showed her documents. Moreover, he
paid interest to the signature sheets.
“Show me the sheets, I want to check whether you will have any dead souls
there,” he said. Yuliya answered that it was the duty of the constituency
election commission, not the police. “Then he told me to remove the coat of
arms of Slutsk from the stand. According to him, prospective candidates were
banned to use it in their campaigns by an appropriate ruling of the executive
committee. “You have been warned”, said the policeman at the departure.
“Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”
