Parliamentary elections: The “single list” of democrats to destroy Popular Front?
The opposition parties decided to take part in the 2008 parliamentary elections as a “single list” as far back as last summer during the Democracy Congress in Vilnius. The United Civic Party, the Belarusian Popular Front, the Belarusian Party of Communists, the Belarusian Social Democratic Party “Hramada”, Nadzeya and others, then signed the declaration. Now, even those who did not sign the declaration want to join the single list, says Anatol Lyabedzka. However, the most “lucrative” constituencies have already been divided.
“Everyone today wants to be on this list. Previously, their stance was either to boycott or wait out until spring. These lists can be adjusted; but they cannot be revised from scratch,” Anatol Lyabedzka said.
The opposition maintains that it will not be necessary to cover all of 110 constituencies across the country. Perhaps, 60-70 or 90 will be enough.
Lyabedzka: “We have an ambitious goal of targeting every constituency. But it doesn’t mean it will be a 1+1 formula in a constituency (one pro-government candidate and one pro-democracy candidate). We are talking only about the United Pro-Democracy Forces”.
In the view of the politician, having an “extra” democrat in a constituency is dangerous, because it will be the authorities not voters to elect.
“If there are 4-5 candidates per constituency, the government will pick the weakest and say later: “There is an alternative!”. The rest will not be registered for whatever reasons”, says Anatol Lyabedzka.
UCP leader could not immediately explain how democrats were going to distribute constituencies between themselves. Lyabedzka, like most of the other party leaders, will run.
Lyavon Barshcheuski, the leader of the Belarusian Popular Front, will not run for the parliament. But he unexpectedly revealed to the European Radio for Belarus some details about the democratic “primaries”. All party members who violate the party discipline and decide to run on their own will be excluded from the party ranks.
“If members of our party violate coalition agreements, we will have them expelled from the party”, he said.
Syarhey Kalyakin, the leader of communists, will take part in the elections and believes that the united democrats and ordinary candidates will fight for constituencies.
“Rebellious” democrat Mikola Statkevich describes the “single list” as “foolishness” and suggests that everyone burns candidate’s ID in public.
Statkevich: “Before taking part in the elections, one needs to think about the form of participation. Let it be one single list. This is definitely foolish”.
According to Statkevich, one needs to prepare for elections but to refuse from taking part in them if the authorities fail to meet 12 EU proposals. “However, boycott is significantly larger campaign that participation in elections in terms of resources. It includes the monitoring of voters’ turnout so that it doesn’t exceed 50 percent. This is impossible in our conditions of early voting. That’s why I suggest simply burning candidate’s ID in public”, Statkevich said.
Political analyst Alexander Feduta calls the “single list of candidates” as a “political collective farm where democrats will find their grave”. In the view of the expert, only party leaders or political pensioners will end up on this list.
“They will be leaders of parties, their deputies and the heads of regional organizations. That’s it. What rotation of political cadres are we talking about? How can they get through to the parliament when even those who are able to succeed during the elections will not be able to get on this list?”, Feduta laments.
He thinks that all who want to participate should take part in the elections in order to withdraw his or her candidature for the sake of a stronger colleague.
