At 4 p.m. on 13 May a sitting of Lahoisk constituency election commission #75 was held in presence of observers from Smaliavichy and the campaign “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections” and the prospective candidate Valiantsina Kaliaka, an activist of the civil campaign “Tell the Truth”.

The sitting was held not by the head of the commission, but by its secretary, legal adviser of the Lahoisk District Executive Committee Aliaksandr Sutsko,

The question of issuing another warning to Valiantsina Kaliaka was considered. According to the commission, the reason for it was an application of a dweller of the village of Drachkava who was not a member of Kaliaka's electoral team but stated that she had unlawfully collected signatures in support of her nomination on her request. Valiantsina Kaliaka presented to the commission a written confutation, signed by the applicant.

Before the sitting, she managed to meet with the woman. The latter said that she had composed the application under the pressure of the head of the Drachkava Village Executive Committee Maryna Hnedchyk and wrote it from the official's dictation.

Valiantsina Kaliaka registered the confutation at the commission and asked the head of the sitting to take into account during the consideration of the issue. However, Aliaksandr Sutsko demonstratively put the question to vote without considering the document. 8 members of the commissions voted for issuing the prospective candidate with a warning. Only one, representative of the Belarusian Popular Front Party Tatsiana Koshaleva, voted against.

Valiantsina Kaliaka expressed her indignation with such attitude of the administration of the Lahoisk constituency election commission to her and the issue of the warning on fabricated grounds and stated her intention to appeal the warning to the Central Election Commission.

Photo taken from the “Tell the Truth” website

“Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”