Viktar Myazyak: People don't care about “elections”

Dwellers of Baranavichy are confident that parliament members will be elected without them.

The head of the organizing committee to hold People's Assembly in Baranavichy, Viktar Myazyak, talks to charter97.org about the “elections”.

- Are there any aspirants to become parliamentary candidates in Baranavichy?

- Yes, there are, but I am not sure they were able to collect 1000 signatures. People refuse to put their signatures even for democratic candidates explaining they will not vote.

- What is the atmosphere in the town? Do people know what will be on September 23?

- They don't know and don't discuss it. People don't care about the “elections”. They say MPs will be elected without them. One cannot oppose rich powerful people. In my view, the more Europe buys petrol, the more money the regime has and the less hopes people have. We can only wait.

- It is a usual practice for small towns to intimidate people and bring them to administrative responsibility. Is it so in Baranavichy?

- Yes, it is. You perhaps heard head of constituency election commission No. 5 Tatyana Latyshava filed a claim against our observer Syarhei Housha  for swearing and insulting commission members.

Syarhei made audio recoding of the meeting. No swearing is heard on the tape. It's clear how the trial will end. It's not as calm as we want. The repression machine demands new victims.

- You have been involved several election campaigns. Did you see election frauds?

- Of course I saw. I was born in Baranavichy and I have been living there for over 50 years. I have many friends here. People know me and help in different situations. I was an observer at the elections in 2004 or 2008, I don't remember exactly. I was sitting at the polling station and observing. I was observing their virtuosity in writing down the necessary figures. But before that, one man told me where I should look for. When ballot papers were packed and sealed, I ran to them, snatched out a pack of forged ballots and shouted: 'I see you are good at maths! But did you count this?' Every ballot paper was signed by two commission members and had a mark opposite a pro-governmental candidate. Two policemen immediately knocked me down to the ground, twisted my arms and too away the papers. The commission head became pale and embarrassed for a moment, but came around quickly, threw the pack into a sack, hopped in his car and drove to the executive committee. I filed several complaints, but I received only formal replies.

- Do you take part in this election campaign?

- I failed to enter the district election commission. They fear I can find out their tricks.  But I will be an observer. I want to record how people boycott this “election”.

- Do you believe people will boycott it?

- People in Baranavichy are unpredictable. We had a boycott in 2000. The only thing is that people may be forced to vote, but there are plenty of variants to resist.

- For example?

- You can take a ballot paper with you from a polling station. Activists will choose an address and ask voters to send their ballot papers. We will collect them and count. It will give us an  opportunity to suppose how many people were forced to vote and how data of the Central Election Commission reflect the reality.

- I know you suffered for your political views. How are you now?

- I faced reprisals after the 2006 elections. They issued me huge fines. I was a self-employed businessman. I had to close my business. I cannot find a job since that. I think the district executive committee probably has blacklists of people who cannot be employed. Unfortunately, I am not the only person on the list. I am a seasonal worker. It's hard to find a job. I am happy to find any job offer.