Mikalai Statkevich: “All Deputies Are False. There Are No True Ones”

Representatives of the Belarusian opposition gave an account of the last “parliamentary elections” in Brussels.

The European Parliament Delegation for Relations with Belarus not only listened to the reports, but made its own conclusions, which are obvious for the united Europe same as before, Belsat reports.

The “elections” can’t be declared valid.

“On the one hand, the access to the electoral process was freer than a year ago. But, as for the voting, a lot of doubts remain. We can’t recognize these elections as elections, which were held in accordance with the democratic system,” – chairman of the European Parliament's delegation for relations with Belarus Bogdan Zdraevsky said.

This unambiguous assessment is based on the findings of the OSCE observation. The representatives of this organization, who are present at the meeting of the working group on Belarus of the Parliamentary Assembly of “Eastern Partnership” (“Euronest”) and the European Parliament's delegation, are working on the final report on the “parliamentary elections” in Belarus. The observers noted only some small positive changes.

“We took in these elections as a window of opportunities for the Belarusian authorities and hoped for more substantial changes, which, unfortunately, did not happen,” – vice-chairman of the OSCE Kent Gerstet summed up the electoral campaign.

The opposition in the parliament is not the opposition.

The entry into the “house of representatives” of the two democratic community representatives was among the changes, which are not there yet. The part of the opposition, which has decided not to take part in the election campaign, does not consider it a success.

“All the deputies are false. There are no true deputies. It doesn’t matter what organization they represent – they are false. There is a puppet theater instead of the parliament in Belarus,” – the politician Mikalai Statkevich said.

Brussels observes the work of deputies from independent organizations.

But, according to some members of the opposition, the presence of independent MPs in the ”house of representatives” could open the door to the Parliamentary Assembly Euronest for parliamentarians, nominated by the authorities. So far Belarus has been the only country, represented by the opposition in the integration project with the united Europe. The cooperation with the House of Representatives has not been possible due to severe human rights violations in Belarus. Now the situation can change. It may happen that this visit to Brussels is one of the last ones for Lukashenka's opponents.

“It's up to them, with whom to communicate. Everyone chooses his partners himself. But for me personally, if this decision is taken, it will signal that Europe is abandoning its values,” – Mikalai Statkevich said.