Social Democrats and Liberal Democrats Nominate Their Candidates

24.08.2004.

On 21 August Belarusian Social Democratic Party “Narodnaya Hramada” and Liberal Democratic Party of Belarus determined their candidates for the parliamentary election. The social democrats gathered a pre-election plenary session of their Central Committee. The liberal democrats carried out an extra-ordinary congress of their party.

“Narodnaya Hramada” and LDPB were the first political parties who nominated their candidates to the Chamber of Representatives. Both parties limited the presence of mass media representatives at their forums. “Narodnaya Hramada” referred to the technical nature of the session of the Central Committee. LDPB activists claimed reporters were to get registered in advance.

Unlike the majority of the opposition parties, LDPB ignored nomination of candidates by signature collection: among 557 registered initiative groups there are practically no LDPB members. Instead, on 21 August the party congress voted for nomination of their candidates at all of 110 districts.

Besides that, the LDPB congress recommended its leader Siarhei Haidukevich to run for presidency in 2006. However, this decision has no legal effect.

LDPB congress did not criticize the Belarusian election legislation and the actions of the authorities. Instead, Siarhei Haidukevich was very critical about the actions of the People’s Coalition Five Plus who had divided the districts in advance.

According to Vital Malashka, head of the BSDP “NH” headquarters, on its Saturday meeting the Central Committee considered 58 party members as candidates for the parliament. According to the party statute, the Central Committee, together with the Congress, is the highest governing body of the party. However, last week CEC head Lidya Yarmoshyna stated that candidates nominated not by a party congress but by some other body, would not be registered.

At present moment the situation is still unclear. According to Vital Malashka, the plenum decided to make an official inquiry to the Central Election Commission about Yarmoshyna’s statement. If CEC response is negative, next Saturday the party will hold an extra-ordinary congress which would confirm the results of the Central Committee’s secret vote, told Malashka to RFE/RL reporter.