Business: What elections? You can be jailed

Representatives of business community show little interest in participating in the parliamentary elections.

This statement was made at a press conference on February 9 by Viktar Marhelau, a co-chairman of the Republican Confederation of Entrepreneurship.

According to him, businessmen do not want to be involved in the parliamentary elections for several reasons, BelaPAN reports.

“You can lose your business or go to prison,” Marhelau stressed. He noted businessmen doubt whether the parliamentary elections will be fair and transparent. “Even if a representative of business gains a seat in the parliament, there are few chances that initiatives of the business community will be implemented,” he said.

Uladzimir Karahin, the head of the Minsk Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers, said reforms should be carried out. He emphasized many businessmen, who became members of parliament, lost their business and never returned to it. “They became officials who come at work at 9:00 and have to ask permission if they need to go somewhere. They lost business initiative. A good thing that not their faces and personalities,” Karahin said.