Presidential candidates will be obliged to declare all criminal records

Presidential and parliamentary candidates will declare all criminal records and sources of income.

The information came from the chairwoman of the Central Elections Commission Lidzija Jarmoshyna as she presented the draft law “On changes and additions to certain laws of the Republic of Belarus on the issues of carrying out elections and referendums” at the parliament today, BelTA reports.

Lidzija Jarmoshyna reported that a number of additions to the data submitted by presidential and parliamentary candidates about themselves are suggested. “First of all, a parliamentary or presidential candidate will be obliged to declare all criminal records that occurred in his/her life. They are not currently obliged to declare that and the only obstacle for being elected is an active criminal record”, - the CEC’s head said.

Apart from that, the declaration of the incomes and property is suggested to be supplemented with the indication of the sources of income of parliamentary or presidential candidates, kin the case he/she does not have official sources of income. “We believe that voters must know that. This is their right”, - the CEC’s chairwoman emphasized. She explained that unemployed people often participate in electoral campaigns in Belarus, who do not declare their income and do not explain it to voters, how they make for living.

Significant changes are suggested to the ruler, regulating the procedure of the pre-election agitation. It is first of all the matter of forbidding to call for boycotting elections, which corresponds to the Convention on the Democratic Election Standards, Electoral Rights and Freedoms in the CIS member-states, Lidzija Jarmoshyna pointed out. “Pre-electoral agitation should not stand on destructive slogans, aimed at preventing voters from implementing their most important democratic right – to participate in elections”, - the CEC’s head emphasized.