Hanna Kanapatskaya’s mandate is not a small victory for the opposition, but a great shame of the United Civil Party, believes Volha Mayorava.
She ran for parliament at the 107th electoral district of the capital. According to Mayorava, the political council of the United Civil Party should have consulted with the other candidates, or as they are called in the party — “speakers”, who expectedly not go through the state barriers.
“This is not a collegiate decision of the party, as it was not discussed with all members of the party and with “speakers”. We insisted that they listen to our views,” explained Volha Mayorava, a UCP activist.
Recently, Hanna Kanapatskaya and her party leader said that they do not recognize these elections. At the same time, the political council of the United Civil Party decided to take advantage of the opportunity the authorities gave them.
“We do not fit into this system, we are the ones who want to change the system, and we are making everything possible for this. If the mandate of Hanna Kanapatskaya helps to change this system, it can be appreciated not today or tomorrow by the majority of people in Belarus,” said Anatol Lyabedzka, chairman of the United Civil Party.
“People must stand by their words”
The authorities deliberately let the deputy from the UCP in the House of Representatives, it is a political combination, said Uladzimir Matskevich.
“The UCP leaders openly said they would withdraw their candidates, who will even get into the parliament. Obviously, no one was hoping that this would happen with the UCP candidates. But since it happened, people have to stand by their words,” said Uladzimir Matskevich, methodologist and expert in political technologies.
In chess, it is called zugzwang – whatever the step, it will only make things worse. Give up a mandate means to lose position. Not to give up means to demoralize the party members. The process is already underway.
“Until now, in the intra-party debate I have not heard any concrete answer to any question. I just hear people say that I am a KGB agent, that I undermine the prestige of the party and bring shame to it,” said Volha Mayorava.
No split but no confidence either
Anatol Lyabedzka is trying to reassure the party activists. He said there will be no split, civilized discussions are welcome, but only within the team.
“I am absolutely grateful to both Hanna Kanapatskaya, Volha Mayorava, and all the rest — we had, it seems, 27 candidates who were working. We all have in the same degree implemented the tasks that we set for this campaign,” said Anatol Lyabedzka.
The stated goal was to show Belarusians and international observers the non-transparency and false nature of the elections and to present to the citizens the reform program “Million jobs”. The deputy mandate became a surprise of questionable value.
“Remember the “Respublika” fraction of the second convocation of the so-called Parliament. Remember Kiryl Rudy, who was not a deputy, but the deputy chairman of the Presidential Administration with his views. And he could not do anything. He, who had the real power! And MPs have no power,” said Matskevich.
What will happen next and who will support Volha Mayorava will be seen at the Congress of all speaker-candidates from the UCP, set for September 25th. To be continued.
Yaraslau Stseshyk, “Belsat”
