Sannikov and Nyaklyaeu: “We’ll struggle until dictatorial regime collapses”

The presidential candidates held a joint press-conference focusing on the campaign evaluation and common strategy on the Square.

Andrei Sannikov and Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu said conditions for free and fair election had not been created in Belarus; candidates didn’t have their representatives in election commissions; candidates didn’t have an opportunity to appear in the press for the last two weeks. At least these reasons don’t allow considering the election free and fair. The addressed their appeal to the European Union, Russia, and other countries.

The candidates urged to come to October Square in Minsk at 8:00 pm, December 19, to protest against unfair election and require new election without Alyaksanr Lukashenka running. According to Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu, not more than 34% of the voters were ready to vote for Lukashenka. This means he cannot win in the first round, but the authorities prepare frauds and mass rigging of election results. Nyaklyaeu said a street action of December 19 would be “an action to depose the dictatorship”. According to him, it will continue until the dictatorial regime collapses.

“The person, who has been considered illegitimate president of Belarus since July 20, 1999, is trying to preserve his power by means of frauds, lies, and dirty tricks. He does not have the right to hold a post of president and run in elections. We will come to the square on December 19. This is the only way to resist falsifications. We don’t have other means. Our voters and we will protect our rights guaranteed by the Constitution that says the people shall be the sole source of state power, and the people have the right for assembly,” Nyaklyaeu said.

Nyaklyaeu called Andrei Sannikov his associate in struggling against the dictatorship in Belarus. In his view, there are no elections in the country. “Let’s call things by their right names. This is struggling against the dictatorship, not the elections,” the politician said.

Presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov enlisted the reasons why the presidential election cannot be recognized by the international community and addressed to officers of police and secret services.

“We’ve already said that we will pay special attention to the electoral fraud and give an unbiased evaluation of the behavior of the authorities and the course of the election campaign. We’ve conducted this unbiased evaluation. The authorities haven’t made any conclusions. There’s the miserable number of opposition representatives in election commissions, though thousands of applications were filed. The fact that the CEC is still headed by Lidziya Yarmoshyna, who faces international sanctions for rigged elections, is insult of the people of Belarus. We demanded that Yarmosyna should resign from her post, but we’ve seen no reaction. We noticed even stronger pressure to early voting than it was at the 2006 election. But it’s clear, because Lukashenka doesn’t have support. His regime is collapsed, so he needs to gather as may votes as possible during early voting.

Tomorrow is a very important day. I hope the joint efforts of national and international observers, members of election commissions who don’t want to violate the law will allow us to get an objective picture at some polling stations. Nevertheless, I don’t expect the machine of falsification to be stopped. The people are deprived of their voice. I’d like to appeal to members of election commissions: the entire Belarus has a chance today. Every has a chance to perform honestly his or her duty.

I’d like to appeal to the police and secret services again. We need to resist falsifications, help the people of Belarus to regain their voice, return the right to elect. I am sure we will do it,” Andrei Sannikov said.

Photo: «www.euroradio.fm»