Activists calling for boycott hunted down

On 5 September the “Tell the Truth” campaign’s activist Yahor Viniacki was detained and on the following day sentenced to seven days of arrest. On 6 September the office of “Tell the Truth” campaign was searched.

On the morning of 7 September Pavel Vinahradau, leader of “Zmena”, the youth wing of the “Tell the Truth” campaign, was detained in his apartment in Minsk and taken to the police station. At about 4:30 pm on 7 September another “Zmena” activist Aliaksandr Artsybashau was arrested not far from his house.

The camapign activists link these actions of the authorities to the attempt of the campaign “Tell the Truth” and its youth wing to organise a “model boycott” in the 101th electoral precinct in Minsk.

No picketing for boycott

On 3 September Vitsebsk activist Barys Khamaida (right) was detained for standing in the city centre with a poster “Boycott the illegal elections to the illegal parliament!”. Khamaida stood with the poster for about two hours. Then he was detained, taken to the police station, where the report was drawn for the unauthorized picketing, and to court. The court ruled to fine Khamaida.

The activist believes he has every right to call for boycott: during the election campaigning period the law allows to campaign both “for” and “against”, including against participation in elections.

“I told the judge my position: it is not against the law as now we have election campaigning period. Yes, calling for election boycott is not forbidden in our country. After my statement, the judge went out somewhere – obviously, to get some advice. Eventually, she ruled to fine me”.

Candidates’ speeches censored

Belarusian state TV channels’ policy is that candidate speeches and debates between them are not broadcast live but recorded. However, the fact of a speech being recorded does not guarantee its being broadcast, as a number of the opposition candidates in their speeches do not campaign for themselves, but call for the boycott. One example is the United Civil Party. All its candidates have a common goal – to discourage people from participating in the voting.

The UCP candidate Mikalai Kazlou, a police lieutenant colonel in the reserve, has recorded his speech on television on 5 September. The lawyer of the Belarusian Television channel warned him:

“There should be no calls for the violent change of the constitutional order, insults and slander against officials of the Republic of Belarus and against other candidates in your speech”.

Kazlou (left) began his speech with recalling the case of violations of the electoral law during the previous election campaign:

“I am here for one purpose only: to persuade you to not to take part in the event which in this country for some reason is called “elections”. In 2008, during the previous elections, on the evening of the day of early voting I witnessed commission members secretly stuffing ballots for the pro-governmental candidate. I caught them red-handed”.

According to Kazlou, these commission members have not been punished for their illegal activities. On the contrary, they are working in the same election commission during the current campaign. Therefore candidate Kazlou called upon voters to “refuse to participate in another fraud, which the authorities call elections”.

The lawyer of the Belarusian state TV channel told Kazlou that the video would be sent to the Central Election Commission (CEC), which would censor it and decide whether it should be aired or not.

Kazlou also recorded his speech on the state radio, but it was not aired for the same reason – because of the fact that he called to boycott the elections.

Kazlou commented: “In this election I am campaigning for the boycott. I want to inform people that there are no real elections, and without elections we have no rights, we cannot influence authorities. The officials are just certain that they will be unpunished”.

Human rights activists and CEC members diverge on boycott

According to Mikalai Lazavik (left), secretary of the Central Election Commission, “It would not be wise of the state to organize the election, spend a great deal of money on it, and provide the opponents with an opportunity to use airtime for campaigning against the state event”. Lazavik confirms that campaigning for the boycott is not prohibited by the legislation of Belarus, but at the same time he believes that it does not fit with the concept of election campaigning.

In his turn, one of the coordinators of the campaign “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections” Valiantsin Stefanovich (right) says that the prohibition of free addresses of candidates who call for boycott of the elections in the media violates the laws of Belarus.

“Calls for boycott of the elections, the criticism of the electoral law and its application, together with any other election campaigning, is not prohibited by the legislation. Parliamentary candidates are free to express their views and platforms, while voters should have the maximum opportunities to get information about candidates, their views and programms. Any restrictions on these rights, except those provided for by laws and needed in a democratic society, should be regarded as an unacceptable restriction on free elections”, Stefanovich said.

In his opinion, during elections citizens have the right not only to vote for one candidate or against all candidates: “Refusal to vote is also a civic position, and voters have the right to do so”.

“Thus, censorship, banning of free speeches in the media of those candidates who are calling for boycott of the elections do not meet the Belarusian law and international obligations of Belarus, violate the principle of equality of candidates and restrict the rights of candidates to campaign and voters’ rights to receive full and objective information”, the human rights activist summed up.

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