Ramanchuk stops collecting signatures, while UCP gets prepared for party "

Jaraslau Ramanchuk collected 110 thousand signatures for his nomination as presidential contender and decided to stop. This was informed by Leu Marholin, the head of the electoral headquarters of the United Civic Party's contender.

Leu Marholin: “We are now going to summarize the final results and then stop, as first of all everything comes to finance. We don't have extra money to waste. Thus the campaign which is called a low-budget one, has quantitative and time limitations”.



According to him, there were no problems in collecting signatures for Ramanchuk.

Leu Marholin: “We didn't have big problems with signatures. People signed willingly, both at pickets and when we came over to their apartments. Voters can be divided into two categories. There are people who consciously sign for Jaraslau Ramanchuk and don't sign for Nyaklyaeu or Sannikau. And there probably are those who sign for them both and don't sign for us. The prevailing majority of people sign for all the contenders, basing on the principle "whoever but not that one".  

Marholin says they collected signatures all over the country but were the most active in 52 regions. Only Homel "fell out". However, the head of Ramanchuk's nomination group Anatol Paulau explained it was not the fault of signature collectors - it was due to non-democracy of the city itself. 

Anatol Paulau: “There is a strange situation with Homel. It is not the first year and not the first elections when it proves to be rather passive from the point of view of the democratic candidates. We even made an away picket there - but they collected only 6 thousand signatures for 5 days. Local people said it was good result. We have one person in Zaslaue - he collected more than 400 signatures alone. And Homel cannot be compared with Zaslaue! ".



For example, more than 11 thousand signatures were collected for Ramanchuk in Babrujsk. According to Paulau, it surprised even the members of the headquarters, and all the signatures were checked and re-checked several times. A lot of signatures were collected in Vitsebsk, Navapolatsk, Vorsha and Minsk region. 

The category of people who sign for Ramanchuk most willingly are women of 25-45 years old, confessed the UCP Vice-Chairman. 

Jaraslau Ramanchuk: “They look at the photo, at posters, and sign. This is voting by soul, sort of visualization. Why? It's irrational, something that cannot be explained”.



While the presidential contender and the members of his headquarters praised the work of signature collectors and activity of the voters, the UCP Chairman Anatol Liabedzka analyzed this electoral stage from the party discipline point of view. And promised to make conclusions. 

Anatol Liabedzka: “At this stage we allowed everyone to work as they wanted to - we are interested in registration of as many democratic candidates as possible. However, I would like to remind that we have a decision of the party Political Council. According to it, those who did not enter Jaraslau Ramanchuk's nomination group but worked in other teams should either submit an application for quitting the party or suspend their membership in the party. As if they could make it without the party during this time, the party could make it without them. We will, most likely, substitute these people for those to whom the UCP is not just a lable”.

According to him, the UCP rendered "humanitarian aid"  to Nyaklyaeu and Sannikau - the party members collected signatures for them as well. However, if the members of their nomination groups simultaneously worked for Ramanchuk, there will be no pretensions to them, says Liabedzka. 

Euroradio asked Ramanchuk about his attitude to Lukashenka's promise to register all the opposition contenders as candidates for President, given to President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė.

Jaraslau Ramanchuk: “If they register everyone who hasn't even collected, but drawn all these signatures, how can we speak about choosing a sole contender? It will be a chaos. Thus we think that situation when people who do not deserve it participate in the procedures which are important for all the democrats, should be prevented”.

Anatol Liabedzka, in his turn, said that such statements of Lukashenka revealed the fact that even registration of presidential contenders in our country happened in accordance with the political opinions, not with the legislation. As it should be the Central Election Commission to decide who will be registered, not the President.



Formation of presinct election commissions will start next week. According to Leu Marholin, the UCP plans to nominate 300-400 their members only to the commissions in the capital. He stated, it would be seen how democratic the electoral campaign would be further on, on the registration process. 

Photo: Zmitser Lukashuk