Zelva: conditions for campaigning remain unequal
The conditions for the agitation campaign remain
unequal for pro-regime and all other candidates for the Parliament.
On 4 September Ivan Sheha (the Belarusian Popular Front Party) and Mikhail
Karatkevich (the “Fair World”) Party visited the village of Karalino
in the Zelva district to hold an electoral meeting at the village club. This
time nobody created any obstacles to them, unlike the meeting in the village of Synkovichy. However, nobody came to the
meeting.
The candidates hanged out invitations to the meeting in advance. However,
instead of them they found only color posters of their rival, pro-regime
candidate Ala Sopikava. These posters could also be seen everywhere, as they
were hanged out by heads of clubs, libraries, officers of village soviets and
teachers on order of the Zelva District Executive Committee.
Independent observers asked dwellers of Karalino why they didn't come to the
electoral meeting of Sheha and Karatkevich. Most of them answered they knew
nothing about the meeting, some others said that there would be a meeting with
a woman, a deputy-to-be. Some people confessed they had been warned against
coming to any meetings with the candidates who wouldn't be elected anyway. Some
men also told somebody else would vote for them. An old lady sitting on a bench
said that she could be deprived of her pension for coming to a meeting with
“BPF activists”.
“Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections”
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