You're reading: Opposition urge Lukashenko to ensure “at least relatively democratic” elections

Belarus opposition politicians who are running for parliament have published an open letter to President Alexander Lukashenko, urging him to take action to ensure that this autumn's elections are "at least relatively democratic and fair," and complaining about campaigning restrictions for opposition candidates.

“You call yourself guarantor of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus. So exercise the rights and duties that this involves. Let the parliamentary elections of 2012 become at least relatively democratic and fair, as the 1995 elections were. This would breach the current economic and political deadlock,” the opposition candidates, who are members of the United Civil Party, said in their letter.

The candidates complained that some of the United Civil Party members had been forbidden to make campaign statements through state television and radio, the declared reasofor the ban being that they were going to call for boycotting the elections. The ban was “a criminal offense,” the candidates said in the letter, posted on the party’s website.

“Voting is not one of the duties of citizens of Belarus. This implies sanction to make motivated appeals both for participation and for non-participation in voting,” the candidates said.

They cited Lukashenko as saying in a television program on April 20, 1995, before that year’s elections: “I won’t vote for anyone. We’ll be deceived anyway. I won’t vote.”

“Why are we not allowed to repeat those words in 2012? Who has vested that dubious supervisory council with powers of censorship and barring statements of parliamentary candidates from going on air? This is a criminal offense,” they said.

They were referring to a dictum on Monday by the Supervisory Council for Compliance with the Rules for Election Agitation through the Media that claimed that the statements in question “cannot be qualified as acts of election agitation.”

“The law explains that election agitation is an activity aimed at persuading voters to participate in elections, in voting for specific candidates or against them,” the council said.

“Since the purpose of unpaid statements through state television and radio that parliamentary candidates are given to right to make is to be part of their election agitation, and the law makes no provision for any other use of such resources, the Supervisory Council assumes that content that fails to meet the criteria of this legislation cannot be presented as agitation content,” it said.