Where one can find UPF election platform

During earlier elections in Belarus, voters chose among candidates' personalities rather than among their platforms. Where can one find information on the platforms of candidates, in particular those representing the United Pro-Democratic Forces (UPF)?

The European Radio for Belarus posed this question to members of parties affiliated with the UPF. All of them said that the UPF's Message to Voters reflects the coalition's platform.

Anatol Lyabedzka, chairman of the United Civic Party (UCP), says that there is no common platform apart from the Message, noting that all contenders have individual platforms.

However, the Message to Voters has not been posted on the UCP's Web site.

Syarhey Kalyakin, leader of the opposition Belarusian Party of Communists (BPC), says that the UPF platform includes the Small Constitution, the UPF's Socioeconomic Platform and Strategy.

Kalyakin: The UPF platform was adopted at the congress. It’s a package of major documents, including the Small Constitution, the UPF Socioeconomic Platform and the UPF Strategy.

Asked who was the author of the platform, Lyavon Barshcheuski, leader of the Belarusian Popular Front (BPF), said that it does not matter because the papert has been approved by the UPF Presidium.


Anatol Lyavkovich, of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party, says that distribution of the platform is a technicality because the Message has been disseminated.

Viktar Karniyenka, of Alyaksandr Milinkevich's Movement for Freedom, says he has nothing to do with messages and platforms. He is responsible for the campaign entitled "For Free and Fair Elections."

Alyaksandr Fyaduta, a political analyst, says he has not yet seen the UPF's platform, but he read about it on the Internet.


Fyaduta: I have not read the UPF election platform. I read a leaflet distributed through blogs. Other blogs wrote that it was a fake leaflet. Later, I found out on the Internet
that Lyabedzka, who distributed the UPF platform, had been arrested. I can only say that as citizen of Belarus I am not familiar with the platform.