Who are Alena Anisim and Hanna Kanapackaja?

Belarusian Language Society's deputy head Alena Anisim and United Civil Party's activist Hanna Kanapackaja have become the members of parliament. They will be only two representatives of pro-democracy opposition forces among 110 deputies at the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Belarus' National Assembly.

Alena Anisim has won in Constituency No 70 in the town of Stoubcy, Minsk region. She was born in Stoubcy district in 1962 and graduated from Philology Faculty at Belarus State University. In the 1980s, she was an activist with the Belarusian youth organization 'Majstrounia'. Since 1991, Alena Anisim has worked at the Institute of Langauge and Literature at the National Academy of Sciences. She is the first deputy chairperson at the Belarusian Lanaguge Society and hosted the Belarusian Language show on the ONT TV channel. in 2015, Anisim declared her ambitions to run for Belarus presidency but refused afterwards having stated it was impossible to win in those conditions.

Hanna Kanapackaja from the United Civic Party has won the MP seat at Minsk's Kastrycnickaja Constituency No 97. Among others, she has defeated Tacciana Karatkievic from Speak the Truth campaign, the ex-presiedntial candidate during the 2015 parliamentary election. Hanna Kanapackaja will turn 40 on October 29. A lawyer by education, she currently owns a limited company.