Shklou activists complain about violations of electoral legislation

February 28, BPF Deputy Chairman Ryhor Kastusiou filed a complaint with the Shklou District Prosecutor's Office in order to draw attention to violatioons of the electoral legislation during the publication of the data of candidates for the Shklou District Council in the district newspaper “Udarny Front”.

The matter is that the newspaper didn't publish any information about the income for the last year and prior convictions of the candidates for the Shklou district and the Mahiliou regional councils, thus ignoring the Belarusian legislation. In particular, it concerns the present chairman of the Shklou Districft Ocuncil, Mikhail Paulovich.

Mr. Kastusiou and Piatro Mihurski paid a visit to the Shklou district commission for elections to the regional council and were told that the newspaper had published “preliminary information about the candidates”, but could not explain why it happened. After that, Ryhor Kastusiou paid a visit to the Shklou District Prosecutor's Office and asked it to pay attention to these violations. Meanwhile, the prosecutor's office tried to redirect him back to the electoral commission.

Mr. Kastusiou believes that the local authorities are reluctant to publish information about the real income and convictions of the Shklou officials, who constitute the overwhelming majority of the registered candidates.

Meanwhile, there are no independent candidates running in the Shklou district: a contender for a candidate for the Mahiliou Regional Council in the Shklou city electoral constituency No. 57, civil society activist Mikhail Kucharenka was denied registeration due to inaccuracies in the signatures collected in support of his registration. Another contender, BPF member Yaraslau Fiasko, refused to file the registration documents to the constituency and the district electoral commissions.

"Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections"