The election programme of Valiantsin Lazarenkau, member of the Tell the Truth campaign and the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada) running for Parliament in Ivatsevichy constituency No. 11, has not been published by local state-owned newspaper called “Mayak” in its issue of 8 September.

According to the weekly’s editor-in-chief Aliaksandr Ivanou, the programme was not printed because the candidate failed to provide documentary evidence of the allegations he had made, namely Valiantsin Lazarenkau was not able to prove that the shortcomings of the current regime he had mentioned in his programme were true.

The editor was later ordered to publish the programme. However, it will not be printed before 15 September, and the opposition candidate will not have enough time to appeal the incident in court or election bodies.

“Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”