Minsk City Council candidate: All programmes are full of lies!

“You know, the candidate does not have a certain programme. Maybe Yauhen Anatoliyevich is doing something of the kind in his constituency. Can you give me your phone number? I will ask him to phone you back when he returns to the office,” secretary of the Liberal-Democratic Party answered my question about Yauhen Kryzhanouski’s programme.

I had to come to the main office of the biggest Belarusian party because it was a real quest to find candidates’ programmes. All you can get in your post box is leaflets with candidates’ biographies – date of birth, income, marital status and photos. That’s it! Their membership in political parties may be mentioned if you are lucky.

I decided to visit an early vote polling station to get some information. But all I saw there were photos of such candidates as Kryzhanouski, Babok and Talkachou.

“This is all we have. We have brought here everything we received. You can vote like this or you can refuse to vote,” the secretary of the election commission told me. I went to look for candidates’ leaflets in entrances to blocks of flats. I even searched in litter bins but all was in vain. All I saw were posters urging people to vote on March 23. I also received the well-known SMS invitation from the CEC.

Candidate Yauhen Kryzhanouski and his party colleagues prefer... agitation shows, he said.

“We have already organized a few meetings. Meetings, not pickets. I organize pickets every day. I have had to cancel them today because I am going on tour to Shchuchin.”

There is no sense in describing your programme and plan of actions in leaflets, Kryzhanouski thinks. The promises will not be fulfilled anyway. “This is just a lie,” Kryzhanouski stated. It is better when voters can remember the candidate’s sharp image.

“We invited Cossacks and gypsies. We had an accordion player ! Our zest is loudspeaker equipment. No one else is using it.”

I tried talking to Kryzhanouski’s rivals – deputy CEO of Milavitsa Ihar Babok and rector of the Republican After-Graduation Institute for Employees of the Ministry of Labour Valery Talkachou. But I did not manage to do it. It was harder to contact them in comparison with showman Kryzhanouski. By the way, Kryzhanouski has leaflets. However, the humorist promised something else insated of his programme.

“My leaflets are simple – if you are tired of ineffective promises and cannot find your deputy, if no one can help you – vote for Kryzhanouski. He will be responsible.”  

Thus, Belarusians have to vote without reading election programmes – guided by their own feelings and the quality of candidates’ photos.

Photo: deaby.org