elections 2006

We, officers of the Committee of State Security (KGB) of the Republic of Belarus want to make a matter of public knowledge the fact that the administration of the Minsk detention center is using unlawful methods of physical influence on the former presidential candidate Alexander Kozulin, recently sentenced to five and a half years in prison.

We, members of the Public Commission for the civic control over the trial against professor Alexaner Kozulin, former presidential candidate and a leader of Belarusian social democratic movement, express deep alarm with the escalating repressions against democratic activists in Belarus. These repressions have been particularly strong after the 2006 presidential elections.

       Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada) addresses to you with a case of unexampled judicial proceedings under the former Presidential contender Aliaksandr Kazulin, which has place in our country these days.

Belarusian police today assaulted opposition demonstrators in Minsk as they were marching toward the city's main detention center to demand that all people arrested in the past few days be released, RFE/RL's Belarus and Russian services reported.

RFE/RL's Belarus Service reported that opposition leader Alyaksandr Kazulin, who was leading the march, was detained.

The European Union should impose tough sanctions against President Lukashenko and his top officials and politicians said Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, President of the Party of European Socialists.

Rasmussen said “Those who deprived the people of Belarus of free and fair elections should be held responsible and accountable, avoiding actions that hurt the people of Belarus. There can be no accommodating an authoritarian regime in modern Europe.” The Party of European Socialists believes that the recent Presidential elections in Belarus were conducted in a totally unacceptable manner, and commends the OSCE for its frank and critical report on the elections.

“On March 19 we shall be together with our people,” told two candidates for presidency in Belarus, the leader of the democratic forces Alyaksandr Milinkevich and a former rector of the Belarusian State University Alyaksandr Kazulin at the first joint meeting with voters in Minsk. The candidates for presidency told that on March 19 at 8 p.m. they will come to October Square in Minsk to sum up the real results of the presidential elections. Together with candidates their families are to come to the square.

“Lukashenka’s time is over, and we do not want violence, we want our voice to be head. The Belarusians are peaceful people, and we can win Freedom in a peaceful way,” Alyaksandr Kazulin told.

  On Thursday in the hall of Minsk cinema “Druzhba” having 600 seats, a meeting with voters was held by the presidential candidate Alyaksandr Kazulin. The meeting was peaceful. Kazulin said that he is not an adherent of revolution and violence, but an advocate of a revolution of consciousness of people, which is taking place already. As said by Kazulin, on March 20 the country would become different. He believes that Lukashenka faces a choice. “He can stay in history a positive figure, the first president of the independent state, Belarus. But after March 19 he enters the last dictator of Europe category. And we all know what future awaits all dictators,” Kazulin said.

The Party of European Socialists expresses its deep concern regarding the Presidential election campaign in Belarus, to be held the 19 March 2006.

Since February, candidates, campaign supporters, journalists and NGOs' activists have been harassed, beaten up or arrested. The PES, which brings together all of Europe’s social democratic, labour and socialist parties, considers this to be totally unacceptable.

The PES holds the Belarusian authorities responsible and accountable for ensuring the proper of the electoral campaign.

The PES demands that the elections be free and fair, with a genuine, open electoral contest.

Presidential candidate Aleksandr Kozulin has asked Valentin Sukalo, chairman of the Supreme Court, to meet with him.

In his letter to the official, the educator-turned-politician notes that he and his aides have repeatedly complained about irregularities in the 2004 constitutional referendum and in the ongoing presidential race. "You have not bothered to reply, even in writing, to any of my complaints, displaying your disrespect for the candidate running for Belarus` presidency," the press office of Dr. Kozulin`s camp quotes him as saying in the letter.

"In such an important period for the country, you have no right to dodge meetings with presidential candidates for a discussion of the state of law and order in the country. I regard your refusal to meet with me as evasion of your official duties. Being the chairman of the Supreme Court, you should be the first to guard law and order in our country and resolutely prevent any flagrant violations of the law," the letter reads.

The First National Channel, also known as Belarusian Television (BT), did not air a full speech by presidential candidate Aleksandr Kozulin on Thursday, making edits to the tape that cut the pre-recorded address to voters short.

While talking to reporters in Minsk on March 2, Vladimir Nistyuk, deputy head of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party "Hramada," said that the channel had axed a nine-minute segment from the speech that focused on Aleksandr Lukashenko`s sons. In his letter to Dr. Kozulin`s camp, BT head Aleksandr Zimovsky explained that the channel had no right to "broadcast unreliable information" and referred to Article 5 of the Media Law and Article 47 of the Electoral Code.

Mr. Nistyuk stressed that the articles did now allow the channel to edit the tape. "At the same time, Article 4 bans media censorship," he added.

In the axed segment, Dr. Kozulin questioned the rapid rise of the Belarusian leader`s two sons, Viktor and Dmitry, up the career ladder. In particular, the presidential bidder said that the former had been named the presidential national security aide and given the rank of ambassador at large despite allegations that he had shot a man in a nightclub altercation a few years before. The candidate alleged that Mr. Lukashenko might consider picking one of his sons as his successor.

By Steven Lee Myers The New York Times

Security officers in Belarus on Thursday arrested and beat a candidate running against President Aleksandr Lukashenko, raising tensions ahead of a disputed presidential election scheduled for March 19.

The challenger, Aleksandr Kazulin, was released more than eight hours later, but not before his arrest prompted protests, scuffles with the police and dozens more detentions during a series of confrontations in the capital, Minsk.

Gunfire erupted near a police station where he was taken, as police officers fired warning shots in an attempt to stop a car carrying his supporters and a photographer, said the candidate's spokeswoman and the election observer mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

A Belarusian electoral official said today four presidential hopefuls had secured the 100,000 signatures required to register as candidates in the upcoming election.

Central Electoral Commission Secretary Mikalay Lazavik told reporters in Minsk today that incumbent Alyaksandr Lukashenka had gathered over 1.9 million signatures. 
Lazavik said Alyaksandr Milinkevich, who is backed by most democratic opposition parties, had 198,559 signatures. He was followed by Social Democratic Party leader Alyaksandr Kazulin 156, 618 signatures and Syarhey Haydukevich of the Liberal Democratic Party (150,319 votes).

Mechyslau Hryb, the head of Alyaksandr Kazulin's presidential nomination group, has sent letters to the Central Election Commission and the Prosecutor-General's Office alleging obstruction of the collection of ballot-access signatures, Belapan reported on 9 January. The group says its members were not admitted to a student dormitory of Yanka Kupala State University in Hrodna, while officials in Slutsk, Minsk Oblast, refused to register the gathered voter signatures.

The group also alleges that some of its members were pressured to quit the signature collection for Kazulin, and that unauthorized individuals in Vitsebsk and Minsk collected signatures for the incumbent President Alyaksandr Lukashenka at workplaces during work hours, which is forbidden by the Electoral Code.

On 8 January, RFE/RL's Belarus Service held a roundtable discussion on Russian gas supplies with five presidential candidates. Here some comments from Alyaksandr Kazulin on this round table.

RFE/RL: For you as presidential candidates, what lessons do you take from the Russian gas row with Ukraine?

Alyaksandr Kazulin: We can make several conclusions and I think that all of them are evident. Anything that comes for free has strings attached. We should understand that nothing is ever for free. Secondly, to deal with any crisis we need to have a steady legal base. Agreements, which can be interpreted in different ways, earlier or later, end in misunderstandings and provoke conflicts as a result. That's what we have seen. If Yushchenko fulfilled the obligations taken by the former government the price would have been different from the one we have now. I should say that I do not fully support this quick rise to $230, but Russia offered $160 to Ukraine and Ukraine refused -- and did it in a bad way. You should not behave this way with a great country.
 
RFE/RL: As potential candidates, what gas prices would you agree with Russia?
 
Kazulin: I can guarantee that the price for gas would be as low as possible and would not increase as rapidly as in Ukraine. Of course, we all understand that, as world gas prices go up, prices in Russia will also increase. Of course they will go up in Belarus, too. It is clear that we should plan our politics according to world tendencies. But it is clear that the gas price in Belarus will not be so high....