The elections of the US President are to finish at 7 a.m. Minsk time tomorrow. From the early morning we plan to update you, dear viewers of the site www.charter97.org, on the most recent results of vote counting. We also plan to publish comments and opinions of Belarusian politicians and experts on the event that is to determine America’s policy, which is to affect our country as well. Stay with us.
Zubr activist Darya Maldavanava who spent 10 days in prison for taking part in street protest action on 19 of October expelled from Minsk state pedagogical college ¹1.
Election observation is a routine undertaking of diplomatic missions, and the United States Department of State welcomes foreign governments’ interest in the workings of U.S. democratic institutions.
The Minsk city government has turned down an application of the Belarusian Party of Communists (BPC) seeking permission to stage a demonstration in downtown Minsk on November 7, the 87th anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution, BPC Secretary Yelena Skrigan told BelaPAN.
The results of October’s parliamentary elections and referendum are evidence that the Belarusian leadership and people support each other, outgoing Iranian Ambassador Mohammed Musa Hashemi Golpaegani said during his meeting with Aleksandr Lukashenko on November 2.
On November 1, 2003 in Belarus the European coalition was created. 22 organizations joined the coalition, which was named “Free Belarus”. Among them were the Belarusian Social Democratic Party “Narodnaya Hramada” and Women Party “Nadzeja”, bloc “Free Belarus”, civil initiative Charter’97, public associations – “the Belarusian Women’s League”, “Revival of Fatherland”, “Chastnaya Sobstvennost”, civil initiatives “We Remember”, “Belarusian Solidarity” and others.
Election observers have returned home from Minsk denouncing the October 17 Belarusian parliamentary elections as fraudulent and criticising a constitutional referendum that would allow Alexander Lukashenko to extend his authoritarian rule.
Belarus’ independent unions plan to stage rallies in Minsk, Gomel, Grodno and Mogilyov on November 4 to demand an end to what they call the government’s discrimination against them. In particular, unionists plan to express protest against the authorities’ efforts to deny registration to independent labor unions, said union leader Nikolai Gerasimenko, adding that courts have taken sides with the executive in all disputes involving independent trade union organizations. “The trade union movement has come under the threat of destruction,” he stressed. The authorities in Minsk have given their permission to stage a rally with an attendance of no more than 100 at a remote park in the industrial part of the city.
Moving toward accession to the European Union (EU) is the “only positive alternative” to government policies ever proposed by Belarus’ opposition, Nikolai Statkevich, leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party “Narodnaya Hramada” (BSDP), said in an interview with BelaPAN.
The Belarusian Popular Front party has received a notice from the Justice Ministry on October 18, 2004. It orders the BPF party to carry out actually re-registration of its branches. The state represented by the Justice Ministry, the BPF’s press release reads, reminded that according to the Article 8 of the Housing Code it is prohibited to place the legal addresses of public associations and political parties in private flats of citizens, and in private houses, if these premises do not have separate entrances to the office of the organization. In this connection the Belarusian Popular Front party, and, apparently, other organizations, are offered within three months, before February 3, to re-register their branches and regional organizations in offices or specially equipped private lodgings with a separate entrance.
Ukraine’s former foreign minister, Borys Tarasyuk, a coordinator of the oppositional candidate’s campaign at the presidential elections, has answered the questions of the Radio Liberty reporter Valer Kalinowski about his view of possible relations between Ukraine and Belarus in case of possible victory of Victor Yushchenko at the elections on November 21.
More than 60 marked referendum ballots were found in a garbage can in Borisov, Viktor Gorbachev, a member of the United Civic Party (UCP) who was a parliamentary candidate in the city, told BelaPAN. All the 62 ballots were marked with a tick in the "No" box, Mr. Gorbachev said.
Moving toward accession to the European Union (EU) is the “only positive alternative” to government policies ever proposed by Belarus’ opposition, Nikolai Statkevich, leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party “Narodnaya Hramada” (BSDP), said in an interview with BelaPAN.
On November 1 Svislach court was to try Viktar Sazonaw (head of Hrodna regional branch of the Belarusian Social Democratic Hramada), Siarhei Malchyk (head of Hrodna regional branch of Belarusian Popular Front), and Vadzim Saranchukow (BPF activist). They were detained on October 31 during commemoration march of Kalinowski brothers (they marched in Svislach town with national white-red-white flags).
Counterpart International Inc., a US non-profit foundation, has to close its office in Belarus and terminate activities under its Counterpart Alliance for Partnership (CAP) program.
On November 1 the Belarusian Association of Journalists addressed Information Minister Uladzimir Rusakevich with an open letter, requesting to cancel the order about suspension of Mestnaya Gazeta. The editor-in-chief of this independent newspaper has been on hunger strike for already 13 days.
In the night of October 30 in Maladechna strangers burglarised the office of the local branch of the Belarusian Popular Front Party. According to the Maladechna BPF activist Party Ales Kaputski, the intruders got into the house through a broken window: “I came in the morning and saw a mess, and noticed that some things had disappeared. I called the police, they came. Some office equipment was stolen: hard drive, fax and copying machines, a radio cassette player, modem and scanner, and a radiotelephone”.
A Ghost at the Party 11:55, 02/11/2004, By Mikhail Vanyashkin and Alyaksandr Kudrytski, Transitions Online
Kiev’s celebration of its liberation from the Germans could have doubled as a victory parade for Belarus’ Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Just 10 days earlier, on 17 October, he had enjoyed what election officials described as an “elegant victory” in a constitutional referendum that paves the way for him to serve a third term. But Lukashenka’s trip to Kiev ended abruptly before the victory parade that was the centerpiece of the celebrations. While Putin stayed for three days, Lukashenka restricted himself to just one day in Kiev, returning after laying a wreath and attending a concert.
Belarus is interested in developing relations with Cuba in all areas, said Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov on his arrival in the Cuban capital, Havana, on Monday.
The Russian and Belarussian defense ministers, Sergei Ivanov and Leonid Maltsev, have signed a plan of cooperation between their countries` Defense Ministries.
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