Jarmoshyna: No Calls to Boycott, No “Static” Addresses

Debates only

Giving BelTA an interview on Wednesday, Lidzija Jarmoshyna, the Chairperson of the Central Election Commission, said it she would welcome abandoning legally granted broadcasts of parliamentary candidates’ addresses on TV and radio. She is already considering presenting several election code amendments to parliament after the elections in September.

Lidzija Jarmoshyna noted she would appreciate not «static forms» as delivering addresses on TV and radio as they are very pricy for the mass media. The CEC Chairperson thinks Belarus need a transition to exclusively discussion formats of pre-election agitation. «Let it be debates, talk-shows, the programme addresses of organizations and parties who nominate their candidates.»

She also noted all broadcast discussions should be free for candidates, but if a candidate wants to be a «talking head», he or she should pay for air time.

According to Jarmoshyna, it will only contribute to the quality of election campaigns.

Legal bans for boycott calling

Like the regulations of all other counties, Belarusian laws were designed with «law-abiding citizens» in mind, Ms. Jarmoshyna said as reported by BelaPAN «When we say ‘electioneering,’ we mean that a candidate goes out and campaigns for himself or, at worst, against someone,» she said. «We could not even imagine that state money would be used to campaign against participation in elections, which are, once again, organized with state money.»

It turned out that candidates are different, and that some of them «feel no gratitude to the state and behave accordingly, disrupting what was organized by this state,» Ms. Jarmoshyna said.

It is necessary to devise a separate set of regulations that would govern campaigning for a boycott of elections and prohibit such campaigning at the government's expense, she said.

Candidates should not be allowed to hold campaign events without applying for permission to local authorities if those events are used to promote an election boycott, Ms. Jarmoshyna said.

She suggested that the right to nominate contenders for the House of Representatives should be extended to «very large» non-governmental organizations, she said. On the one hand, it is becoming more difficult to collect the required number of ballot-access signatures for objective reasons, as people do not want to open their doors to signature-collectors, she said. On the other hand, it is wrong that 22 people who participate in a convention of the United Civic Party nominate 52 contenders, while trade unions with tens of thousands of members have no right to nominate, she said.

In addition, candidates should not be prohibited from contributing more than 20 times the Base Rate, or two million roubles, to their personal campaign funds, Ms. Jarmoshyna said. «If a person has money, let him contribute a thousand times the Base Rate, if he likes,» she said. To bypass the contribution restrictions, some candidates ask other people to donate their money into their funds, she said.

However, all the election campaigns held during the rule of Aliaksandr Lukashenka were recognized undemocratic and not free by the international community. Chairperson of the Central Election Commission of Belarus Lidzija Jarmoshyna is blacklisted and prohibited to enter the EU and USA.

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