A canvassing picket in support of an activist of the “Tell the Truth” campaign Aliaksandr Sokalau, held on 11 August near the “Slutsk” department store, caused an unexpected reaction f the head of the shop administration and the deputy head of the Slutsk District Executive Committee on ideology, Larysa Dabravolskaya.

According to the head of Sokalau's electoral team Yuliya Balakir, at about 12.30 a.m. a woman came up to her, grabbed the informational stand of the candidate and took it aside. “This mustn't stand on my territory!”, stated the woman who evidently represented the shop administration. “I explained to her that I didn't violate the law and proposed to solve the conflict with the assistance of the police,” says Yuliya.

The woman went away. Several minutes after it the deputy head of the executive committee on ideology Larysa Dabravolskaya arrived. She attentively examined the stand, then stepped aside and phoned somewhere.

Soon afterwords a man in civvies came up to Yuliya Balakir and introduced himself as an officer of the Slutski District Police Department. Though he didn't show his ID, he demanded that she showed her documents. Moreover, he paid interest to the signature sheets.

“Show me the sheets, I want to check whether you will have any dead souls there,” he said. Yuliya answered that it was the duty of the constituency election commission, not the police. “Then he told me to remove the coat of arms of Slutsk from the stand. According to him, prospective candidates were banned to use it in their campaigns by an appropriate ruling of the executive committee. “You have been warned”, said the policeman at the departure.

“Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”