Regime persecutes candidate who announced boycott

A member of a constituency election commission Alyaksandr Krautsou is set to lodge a complaint against the chairman of the Council of Homel regional branch of the Belarusian Popular Front party Valery Putsitsky who stated he would withdraw his candidature from the race.

Recently at the session of Rechytsa constituency election commission an application of the chairman of the Rada (Council) of the regional branch of the Belarusian Popular Front Party Valery Putsitski, who told he would withdraw his candidature from the “elections”.

In his application the candidate for deputy of the “chamber of representatives” V. Putsitski named 3 reasons why he left the race: a democratic representative hadn’t become member of the constituency commission; representatives of democratic forces haven’t been included in most precinct commissions; pressure of tax inspection on his employer Aleh Shabetnik.

Valery Putsitski works as a deputy director on planning in a private enterprise “Alida and Co” in Rechytsa. As the politician says, after his nomination as a candidate, the director of the enterprise A. Shabetnik was summoned to tax inspection. He was asked about Putsitski there, and threatened that the enterprise would be checked several times.

Besides, A.Shabetnik is a member of the precinct election commission of the precinct No. 6 in Rechytsa. He is the chairman of the Homel regional branch of the “Belarusian Social Democratic Party Hramada”, and he had been nominated as a member of the commission by citizens giving an application.

“A commission member Krautsou stated that he would offer the inspection head to go to court with a libel suit, and V. Putsitski and A. Shabetnik would be defenders. Alyaksandr Krautsou himself is a deputy head of the inspection of Taxes and dues Ministry in Rechytsa region,” Alena Agafonava, an observer of the commission said.