Minskers don't remember whom they voted for several days after election
"Klimovich!? There was a teacher with such name in our school, but I think it's not her you are talking about" - Euroradio has polled people in the streets.
Many candidates who won this year's election got more than 50% of votes, according to official information. This means, every second voter in the electoral district should know their future deputy. We went to the industrial districts of Minsk to ask the local inhabitants whether they know their deputy's name.
Natallia Klimovich won in the Chkalau district. According to
preliminary information, the director of the children's polyclinics No. 3 got
about 60% of votes with the total turnout being 58,9%.
The electoral booth with Natallia Klimovich's photo was still standing near the
local store. We stood right beside it and asked the passers-by the following
question: "Do you know who Natallia Klimovich is?" Surprisingly
enough, only several people out of thirty knew the answer!
After that, we went to the South-West electoral district, to the students'
dormitory where the majority of the electorate lived. Current deputy Svyatlana Shylava won
here, having got 62% of votes. There were many young people near dormitories,
and the majority of them...knew who Svyatlana Shylava was and even more!
We moved to the ordinary yards with no students and asked the same question to
a lady who was passing by. She said she heard something of Svyatlana Shylava's
literature experiments, but never saw her in the role of a candidate, let alone
the deputy.
We proceeded to the last stop of trolley-bus No. 23, which is located at the
cross-roads of Rosa Luxembourg Street and Lermontov Street. According to
preliminary information, policeman Vasil
Alyakseyenka won the election there with more than 60%
of votes. We tried to find sober people for our public opinion poll, but we did
not always succeed in that. The answers astonish - NO ONE knew who he was among
30 respondents. When I told them he was the deputy that they had elected, they
told as one that they hadn't voted!