Vitsebsk Regional Court supports deception of voters by election commission
Coordinator of the BCD organizing committee Tatsiana Seviarynets and activist of the same organizing committee Alena Shabunia tried to challenge the refusal of the election commission to register them as candidates. They tried to prove that the voters were deceived, but the court didn't agree with their position.
Tatsiana Seviarynets received the registration denial on March 5:
"There was a trial at which I spoke about the actions of the city election commission not to register me by declaring invalid a part of signatures in my support. Such measures cannot be called anything but deception: members of the commission came to the signatories and asked them whether they put signatures in my support. They were also asked to put signatures in a special form. The people signed it without looking! However, as it turned out, they signed a declaration stating that the date of the signature was put not by them, but by the collectors of signatures! They weren't even warned about such question. Moreover, in some cases members of the signatories' families were asked to put the “confirming” signatures instead of the signatories themselves. However, the regional court didn't regard it all as a violation."
Tatsiana Seviarynets learned about the swindle from the outraged voters. They wrote written explanations about it and were ready to testify at court. However, they weren't summoned to the trial.
"The regional court wanted to pass the writs to me so that I would pass them to the electors. Is it my duty? I refused to do it first of all because on March 4 I went to the funeral of Ryhor Baradulin in Minsk. On March 5 at the trial it was declared that none of the witnesses appeared at court! I have great doubts that any of them were handed writs at all. That's how it all ended: they declared my testimony was unsupported and the actions of the city election commission, headed by Valiantsina Kazakouskaya, were legitimate.
On March 6, the trial on the appeal of an activist of the organizing committee of the Belarusian Christian Democracy Alena Shabunia was held on the same scenario. We should remind that similar appeals were receiving by the Vitsebsk Regional Court from the coordinator of the “For Freedom” movement in the Vitsebsk region Khrystafor Zhaliapau and an activist of the organizing committee of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party Aliaksei Haurutsikau. However, the court stated that at the time of the registration the election commission had the electors' statements about the alleged violations. Though later the people stated that they had been deceived by signing the statements without reading them, the court stated that the registration of candidates was already over and nothing could be done.
"Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections"
