Volha Kazulina: “Congress didn’t have a moral right to vote out leader of the party”

In an interview to the Charter’97 press-centre a daughter of the political prisoner Alyaksandr Kazulin slammed the decision of the Belarusian Social Democratic party (Hramada) about re-election of the party chairman.

“The BSDP (H) congress was n accurately, well-planned performance. Most of the delegates of the congress were supporters of Anatol Lyaukovich. It is still interesting to me why I hadn’t been recognized a delegate of the congress. I didn’t have a right to vote, though I am a direct representative of Kazulin. There was a very interesting, completely incomprehensible system of participants’ selection. Besides, Lyaukovich’s speech at the congress contained many against Alyaksandr Kazulin and me personally; he was speaking using clichés of the state-run Belarusian TV, though I have always said I’m not a politician, but just a daughter of a political prisoner who is seeking her father’s release.

When speaking, I warned Social Democrats about the following thing: the congress does not have a moral right to voted Kazulin out, at least because he is imprisoned, he is imprisoned for all of us. He couldn’t give battle to those pseudo-politicians who staged that farce. I told them that Kazulin should be released, and then election should take place. Nevertheless, Kazulin has been voted out, and now he is a common member of the party. I have said to everyone that by that decision Lyaukovich had let down not only himself, but the whole party. And the party that has let down its imprisoned chairman, will be a pariah all over the world. It’s a pity Lyaukovich has crossed up people with good reputation, including Myachyslau Hryb. There is an impression that as long as Kazulin’s rating is growing constantly, they have staged intended lowering of his status. It is possible that Lyaukovich had a secret understanding with the regime, as it is the regime for which the situation is beneficial,” Volha Kazulina said.

As we have informed, on August 3 in Minsk a new leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic party (Hramada) was elected. Anatol Lyaukovich, a former deputy chairman of the party, succeeded Alyaksandr Kazulin, who is in prison for staging a mass rally on March 25, 2006, as the party leader. Kazulin was sentenced to 5.5 years of imprisonment.