UCP leaders withdrawing from “election”. Lyabedzka goes all the way

Five MP candidates, representing the United Civil Party, have stopped running in the “election campaign”. Among them are Stanislau Bahdankevich, Valyantina Palyavikova, Hanna Yahorava, Katsyaryna Malasaeva, and Alyaksandr Dabravolski. Head of the United Civil Party Anatol Lyabedzka decided to run in the “election” to the end.

As we have reported earlier, on September 16, UCP members delivered an ultimatum to the Central Election Commission in view of inability of printing agitation materials of their candidates. Lyabedzka, Bahdankevich, Palyavikova, Yahorava, Malasaeva, and Dabravolski were going to issue a joint election leaflet, but some printing houses refused them.

CEC spokesman Mikalai Lazavik said at the CEC session on September 18, he “had a sincere desire to help Anatol Lyabedzka and organise publication of election leaflets”. However according to him, UCP candidates decided to “publish a special issue of “Narodnaya Volya” newspaper instead of leaflets”, and didn’t responded to a suggestion to change a form of an election booklet.

“We had to respond to brutal actions of the authorities towards MP candidates, UCP members. They can’t publish their printed materials in Minsk, and it is accompanied by the lies, spread by CEC officers. This is our protest against actions of the authorities in this situation and in a general sense. At the same time we consider important to fulfil our duties in the frames of the coalition. They reduce to revealing the fact of falsification at a final stage. I believe, there will be many of them in Staravilenski constitueny #105, where I run,” Anatol Lyabedzka told in an interview to the Charter’97 press center.