Wannabe candidates start collecting signatures


To register presidential candidates, nominating groups have to collect at least 100,000 signatures.

Citizens of the Republic of Belarus who have reached the age of 18 have the right to leave their signatures in support of the candidates for presidency. Thus, one person can sign for several potential candidates.

Details are included in the voters’ signature lists by hand – they can be filled both by voters and members of nominating groups collecting signatures. But a voter has to personally sign it and indicate the date in the signature sheet.

Signature collection is allowed from 8.00 to 22.00.

Possibility to put out a picket

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The collection of signatures can be conducted in the form of picketing. Getting permission to organize a picket is not required, if it is held in a location approved by local authorities. A list of places prohibited for collection of signatures in the form of picketing is defined by the local authorities.

In Minsk, compared with the 2010 presidential election, the list of prohibited places also includes the railway and air transport facilities, pedestrian underpasses, the Landside area, Yakub Kolas Square and the State Flag Square.

In addition, the election pickets cannot be held at underground facilities, in the territory of the central squares (October, Independence and Victory), at a distance less than 200 meters from the Presidential Administration, the National Assembly, the Council of Ministers, as well as at a distance of less than 50 meters from buildings of government bodies and local authorities, diplomatic missions and consular offices, courts, prosecutor bodies and the organizations providing national defense and state security.

Whom will the signatures be collected for?

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 Eight nominating groups have been registered in the Central Election Commission and will collect signatures:

Alyaksandr Lukashenka – the incumbent;

Syaei Kalyakin – Chairman of the Belarusian left party Fair World;

Syarhei Haidukevich – Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party;

Tatstsiana Karatkevich – activist of the campaign Tell the Truth, a representative of the People’s Referendum coalition;

Anatol Lyabedzka – Chairman of the United Civil Party;

Viktar Tsyareshchanka – economist and former presidential candidate for the 2010 elections;

Zhanna Ramanouskaya – teacher from Brest, currently unemployed;

Mikalai Ulakhovich – Chairman of the Belarusian Patriotic Party, the supreme chieftain of the NGO Belarusian Cossacks.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka has the largest nominating group (10.5 thousand people). It is followed by the group of Syarhei Haidukevich (2.5 thousand people), Tatstsiana Karatkevich (more than 1.9 thousand), Syarhei Kalyakin and Mikalai Ulakhovich (about 1.5 thousand in each group), Anatol Lyabedzka and Viktar Tsyareshchanka (approximately 1 thousand people). The nominating group of Zhanna Ramanouskaya, of which almost nothing is known, has 109 people.

The collection of signatures for nomination of presidential candidates will last up to and including 21 August.

Fifth presidential elections are set for October 11th.

BelaPAN, belsat.eu/en/

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