Yarmoshyna: Is Statkevich still in prison?

The head of the Central Election Commission (CEC) says the nomination of Mikalai Statkevich as a presidential candidate is illegal.

Lidzia Yarmoshyna said it to Euroradio. According to her, the upcoming presidential “elections” will cost 263 billion rubles. If only one round is held, it will cost 180 billion rubles.

The official said that the CEC would check sources of contributions to electoral funds and withdraw candidates for mentioning a boycott of the elections.

“A boycott is forbidden by law, so we cannot be soft in the issue. Those calling for a boycott will be brought to administrative responsibility. Candidates will be withdrawn if their programmes contain calls for a boycott. As for the withdrawal, it is a personal matter, we don't have strict measures. Under law, if a candidate withdraws for no good reasons, he or she cannot run in repeat elections and must reimburse the expenses spent on him or her by the election commission.

The CEC chief stressed that proposing political prisoner Mikalai Statkevich as a presidential candidate was illegal.

“It is absolutely illegal! Firstly, Statkevich has a criminal record. Is he still in prison? I know you have fresher information than I do. I don't know, maybe he was released already. If he is in prison, he cannot ran in elections. We cannot register his initiative group. In this case, Liabedzka will be the main candidate [of the United Civil Party],” the head of the Belarusian Central Election Commission said.