Anatol Lyabedzka: “Authorities to appoint 100 deputies again”
- 5.06.2008, 9:18
“The authorities don’t leave us a choice. The amendments to the Electoral Code, prepared by the National Committee of the United Democratic Forces, were thrown to a waste bin. It means, the authorities are going to appoint 110 deputies once again,” Anatol Lyabedzka, leader of the United Civil Party, told in an interview to “Tovarishch” newspaper.
The UCP leader said the opposition parties reserve the right to withdraw their candidates some days before the voting, if the UDF representatives don’t have an opportunity to take part in votes counting. “It is logical. If both supporters and opponents of the current political course fight for support and votes of electorate, they both should take part in counting of votes. In other case it will be a lottery scam,” the politician noted.
The politician agrees that people today do not have an impression of importance and significance of the “house of representatives,” but nevertheless he is going to run in the “elections.”
“It is so. The reason is that our country hasn’t had the parliament for 12 years. The “house of representatives” functions as a department of Lukashenka’s administration. Secondly, the electorate has been deprived of the right of choice. A deputy depends not on an elector, who votes, but on the ruler, who appoints him or her. An appointed deputy is a typical official, who depends economically and politically on a person, he or she should control in normal conditions.
Of course, the “house of representatives” doesn’t have the functions and power that the dispersed in 1996 13th Supreme Council had. But this structure is still able to influence the situation. Why don’t they do it? Because the deputies are appointed, and there are not UDF representatives for 12 years. As a result, 5 and a half million of people have been deprived of social guarantees, some hundreds of thousands of individual entrepreneurs have been deprived of a perspective, teachers lost the guaranteed by law 48-day vacation. These are not all things we have lost. All that has been made by the “house of representatives,” Lyabedzka says.
On a question, if holding of elections is possible in the situation, when the Central Electoral Committee is headed by such odious person as Yarmoshyna, the UCP leader answers: “what if Lukashenka makes a change and appoint for instance Pyatkevich instead of Yarmoshyna, will the situation change? The answer is obvious – no. Laws and their practical use should be changed. As soon as the authorities agree to hold election sin accordance with OSCE standards, representatives of all political subjects, taking part in the electoral campaign, will be included into the CEC. They won’t sit aside with the right of an advisory vote, but will have equal rights with yarmoshynas, lazaviks and other figures juggler.
Anatol Lyabedzka also says it is necessary to take to streets in protest on the day of voting.
“The authorities don’t leave us a choice. The amendments to the Electoral Code, prepared by the National Committee of the United Democratic Forces, were thrown to a waste bin. It means, the authorities are going to appoint 110 deputies once again. We must react today. Especially, taking into consideration, we have no opportunities to inform people quickly,” the UCP head thinks.