Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu: We Are to Take Decision about Square on October 10

The expression of the will of the people is to be seen on the rally on Saturday, October 10, not at polling stations.

The former candidate for presidency in the elections – 2010, a well-known poet and public leader Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu in an interview to charter97.org unfolded his plans for Sunday, October 11.

- You have already stated that the “elections” – 2015 had been rigged by the authorities from the start, and citizens should not go to polling stations, but to protest rallies. What are your plans for October 11?

- Recently many people ask me about my plans for October 11, having in mind to ask whether the Square [protest rally] would be organised. I want to say the following: candidates for presidency in Belarus had been calling voters to gather on the Square in 2010. They appealed to take to the streets not only to protest against the electoral fraud, but to defend the votes cast for democratic candidates.

Almost all candidates had been calling for that. And the motivation both of the candidates and people on the Square was fully comprehensible. Today it is obvious that the regime had started mass rigging even from the start of the early voting. It is an unprecedented incident: the authorities have simply started “driving” people to polling stations.

It is obvious that the “candidates”, who are taking part in this political campaign, would not receive these “votes.” And exactly they should have urged voters to rally on the Square in order to protest against the fraud. But we have not heard a single call from the persons who are running for presidency in 2015. It means that these people accept the game offered by the authorities to them.

What should politicians, who had decided to stay away from this “electoral farce”, do in this situation? Firstly, to evaluate the situation, to find out the protest level of the society, what we have done exactly by holding a few meetings. Now we are going to see what is to happen at the People’s meeting on October 10. It is to become a key moment: what people are going to demand at the meeting on October 10 on Freedom Square and during the march to Yakub Kolas Square – and proceeding from that we are going to make a final decision regarding October 11.

- And as a citizen who has a constitutional right to participate or not to participate in the “voting” – what are you going to do?

- As a citizen and a politician, on October 11 I am going to stay in Minsk. Undoubtedly, I am not going to attend any polling stations. I will stay in Minsk and monitor the situation. There is a tendency that the Square could emerge spontaneously – then democratic politicians should be there, together with the people.