Belarus authorities bar man from running for MP seat due to his studying in Poland
The Brest election commission denied registration to 23-year Belarusian Uladzislau Sysa.
The young man was about to run for a seat in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Belarusian parliament.
Justifying the refusal, the commission referred to the Electoral Code and highlighted Sysa’s status of a student of a Polish university and non-permanent stay in Belarus.
The code does include such a rule, but the law does not specify after how many days of the absence in Belarus one lose the status of a permanent resident.
Uladzislau Sysa has appealed against the commission’s decision.
It should be noted that a number of Belarusian opposition activists, including Iryna Khalip, Yury Hubarevich, Alyaksandr Kabanau, Maksim Vinyarski, were also denied registration.
After the infamous referendum in 1996, the first and still the only president of Belarus received the authority to hold referendums and appoint top officials. His decrees and orders became stronger than laws: the Belarusian parliament – National Assembly – was turned into a rubber-stamping legislative body which obediently carries out all Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s instructions. In September 2016, the news about two opposition candidates’ getting into the lower chamber of Belarus’ National Assembly came as a bombshell.
In August 2019, Alyaksandr Lukashenka signed a number of decrees to set the dates for the elections to the Council of the Republic and the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus of the 7th convocation. They will be held on 7 and 17 November 2019 respectively.
