Volha Damaskina: Does District Commission See No Difference Between Numbers 45 and 47?

Strange things happen in Navapolatsk.

On November 5, a warning was issued to "parliamentary deputy" candidate Volha Damaskina. The election commission of the Navapolatsk constituency No. 24 issued a warning to the candidate for violating the requirements of Article 47 of the Electoral Code for the use of the poster "Down with the Dictatorship of Fear" during the picket on October 29th, Radio Racyja reports.

The written document was not given to the candidate right away, and the candidate was able to receive it only the next day, more than 24 hours after the picket.

And when she read it, she could not recognize the content.

"In the presence of two OSCE observers and two of my agents, it was said that the warning was issued according to Article 47. I was also reading it out loud, Article 47, and asking: "What has been violated here?" And when I was reading the written decision, I saw that there was already Article 45," - Volha Damaskina said.

Volha Damaskina did not ask the members of the commission on what day they had made a mistake: the decision is dated November 5, and the candidate has only three days to appeal against it.

More than 24 hours had to be spent on waiting. The candidate does not consider herself guilty of violating either Article 47 or Article 45. According to the latter, she was accused of violating the thematic orientation of the picket on October 29: it was devoted not to campaigning, but to the problem of political prisoners in Belarus.

Volha Damaskina does not see any contradiction here. "None of the articles of the Electoral Code specifies what the campaign is to be like. A lot of voters addressed me on the issue of political prisoners - they wanted to know how I feel about it. That picket was my explanation. And it was important to me that voters knew my position," - the candidate said.

The candidate filed a complaint to the regional election commission. And she is convinced that the warning should be canceled already because the district commission verbally announced some figures and wrote others.