As the “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections” learned, the head of the educational department of the Tsentralny District Executive Committee of Homel Aleh Leushunou intends to run for the Parliament at Homel-Central election constituency #33.

Leushunou’s candidacy is nominated in a strange way – about two weeks ago the information about the registration of his electoral team was published at the website of the Tsentralny DEC, but later was removed. Meanwhile, nobody has noticed any canvassing pickets in support of Leushunou’s candidacy so far. Thus, it remains unclear where and when the signatures in support of his registration as a candidate for the Parliament are collected.

At the same time, the overwhelming majority of members of the precinct election commissions at the constituency where he runs are teachers of secondary schools who are subordinated to Mr. Leushunou who were nominated to the commissions as representatives of civil associations or groups of citizens.

In particular, precinct election commission #32 of the Homel-Central constituency consists of 13 people. Only one of them was nominated by the labor collective of secondary school #59. According to the list of the commission members, all others are representatives of the Belarusian Peace Foundation, the Belarusian Union of Women, the Red Cross, the “Belaya Rus” or were nominated by collection of electors’ signatures. In fact, at least 11 members of the commission are teachers of secondary school #59 and its principal, Aliaksandr Kalkou, was included in the commission as a representative of the Belarusian Peace Foundation. Moreover, at least 7 teachers of this secondary school work at PEC #33.

What concerns PEC #30, almost all its members are presented as representatives of civil organizations and groups of citizens. In fact, at least ten of them are teachers of secondary school #16, including the schoolmaster Iryna Sliaptsova, included in the commission as a representative of the Belarusian Union of Women.

At least 13 out of 17 members of PEC #17 work at gymnasium #10, including the headmaster, Irena Biaspalaya. Of course, it is not mentioned in the list of the commission members that they are teachers – they are presented as representatives of civil associations (the Belarusian National Youth Union, the Belarusian Union of Women, the “Belaya Rus”, the trade union) or as nominees of a group of electors.

At least 10 teachers and the schoolmaster were included in PEC #13, situated in the building of secondary school #11 in Homel. It goes without saying that factually all members of the commission work at this school, including the schoolmaster Natallia Litvinava. All teachers working in this commission are also registered as representatives of various civil associations.

A similar situation is observer at other precincts of the Homel-central election constituency. If commissions don’t consist of teachers – they are formed of workers of a state enterprise with a member of its administration at the head (“Kamintern” joint stock company, “8 March” joint stock company, “Building trust #14 and so on) or lecturers of one university (in the PECs located in the Historical State University named after F. Skaryna).
 
“Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”