Alyaksandr Kazulin: “If election is not free, people should protest” (Photo, video)

The oncoming “parliamentary election” will be neither free nor democratic, and real opposition won’t enter the “parliament”. If the election results are rigged, the Belarusians should protest because their votes haven’t been counted. Former political prisoner and former presidential candidate Alyaksandr Kazulin said it at a press conference in Minsk today.

“I can say with certainty that everyone who will run in the election campaign to the end in spite of a great number of violations will work for the regime of Lukashenka. I strongly believe that no one from the real opposition will enter the “parliament”. Lukashenka won’t allow the really powerful politicians seat in the “parliament”. Those who will make some agreements with the regime, or who are not dangerous for the regime, or those, the authorities have damaging materials against, will be able to enter the “parliament”. A very important question today is legitimisation of more Lukashenka rather than the “parliament”. The matter is in an indulgence of the civilised society for Lukashenka. I wonder if this indulgence if moral? I have said it many times and want to say it again: Lukashenka is a challenge for the civilised world. The system created by him is more dangerous than he himself. Lukashism is dangerous. We must realise it,” Alyaksandr Kazulin said.

The former political prisoner also said that if the Belarusian democratic forces called on people to take to streets in protest against rigging the election results, he would be ready to do the same.

“The Council of Europe in the person of its president, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, OSCE office in Minsk have repeatedly said that it is natural in any country when people protest against falsification the election results. People have peaceful demonstrations to show they don’t agree with the election results. Reaction of the authorities is calm in all countries of the world.

If people take to streets after the “parliamentary election” in protest against rigging the election results and the authorities take repressive methods to put it down, it will demonstrate that the authorities have really falsified the results and have guilty conscience. If the democratic forces call to boycott the election and withdraw candidatures, call on people to take to streets to express their protest, I will do the same. It is obvious that votes are not counted. It is important to show that your vote may be heard. If it wasn’t counted, it should be heard then.

I also call on democratic forces to withdraw their candidates if it will be obvious that the election will be falsified. We have too many reasons to say that the election will be unfree, non-democratic and rigged. If the election is not free, I will call on people to take to square and show we are not slaves, we don’t agree with legitimisation of Lukashenka, we don’t want he to rule the country forever,“ Alyaksandr Kazulin said.

Kazulin think pardon by Lukashenka is humiliating

Alyaksandr Kazulin said on a press conference in Minsk he was ready to go back to prison. “I am ready to go back to prison if a charter of pardon is abolished,” the politician said. He stressed he didn’t see a president’s charter of pardon.

According to Kazulin, if it hadn’t been for his father-in-law death, he would have refused to leave prison. “My moral principles don’t afford me to accept a pardon. I would never left prison until Andrei Kim and Syarhei Parsyukevich were released. They would have needed to throw me from prison by force,” the politician said.

He noted that he finds his pardon humiliating for him: “I refuse to be pardoned because it is a humiliation. I take my release as a sign of justice, but I don’t accept it in the way it was made.”

A. Kazulin said he was released fast, “it resembled silent movies”. “I was said my father-in-law had died, then the first deputy prison chief said I had half an hour to gather my personal things, books and photos. I was ready in ten minutes. I was guarded outside the territory of the colony and then said I was released according to a “president’s order of pardon”. I answered I didn’t accept the order and wouldn’t sign any documents. I was said they had no documents, they just received a fax from Minsk,” the politician told.

The politician still watched by secret services

Alyaksandr Kazulin said: “I something happened to me, it won’t be due to his fault and initiative.”

“I am as careful as a can today, I am prudent and careful,” the politician emphasised. He said he had no health problems and had “no medical indication to apoplectic and hearts attacks”.

According to Kazulin, he has reliable information that “a special department of 15-20 people has been created in the KGB to watch him and his family. "They don’t let me alone even at large. I am surveilled. Three cars are always following me and all phones are monitored,” the politician said.