The head of the Brest organization of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada) Hanna Kanius who awaits registration as a candidate for the Parliament at Brest-Western election constituency #1, received a warning from the constituency election commission.

The reason for the warning is an application of her rival, the head of the Brest central department store Viktar Valiushytski who stated that she had published false information about him in mass media.

Earlier Hanna Kanius had applied to the election commission with the request to check some facts which witnessed violations of the electoral legislation by Valiushytski. Predictably enough, the commission didn't found any violations in actions of the pro-governmental candidate.

The commission's reaction to his appeal against Hanna Kanius was quite different: having listened to his explanations and her arguments, the commission members voted for issuing her with a warning (two members of the commission abstained from voting). According to the commission, the violation is that mass media published information about her application to the election commission. “However, I asked to check the circumstances, described in my application, and didn't assert that Valiushytski has violated anything. Shall a warning be issue for this?”, asks the activist.

Hanna Kanius has filed an appeal against the warning to the Central Election Commission. Now she is waiting for an answer.

“Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”