Belarusian CEC sees no point in holding pickets to collect signatures at local “elections”

Mikalai Lazavik, the secretary of the Central Election Commission (CEC), thinks organizing pickets to collect signatures at the local “elections” is not topical.

He told in an interview to BelaPAN that an initiative group needs to gather at least 150 signatures to support a candidate for a seat in the regional and Minsk city council, at least 75 signatures for a seat in a district or city (for district centers) council, at least 20 signatures for a seat in a city (for other cities) or village council.

“It is not a problem for a 10-member initiative group to collect 150 signatures during a month. The other case is that representatives of political parties want to use it to promote their ideas,” Mikalai Lazavik said.

According to him, holding pickets will be expedient during the presidential elections, when an initiative group will need 100,000 signatures for a candidate.

As said by Lazavik, the local authorities “were too careful “to define the places where pickets are forbidden.

“Pickets should be carried out in crowded places. In some cities, the list of forbidden places is too big. But in general, the executive committee made informed and clever decisions. They banned holding pickets near administrative buildings, children’s institutions, strategic objects,” he said.

Lazavik noted that the Central Election Commission “criticized committees that had established too many forbidden for pickets places and recommended to be more flexible in applying the ban”. “However, we do not have the right to cancel decisions of executives committees,” he said.