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Campaign "Right to Choose-2020"

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Campaign Campaign "Right to choose-2020" Interim report No. 2 on the results of the first stage of the independent election observation campaign of the election of the President of the Republic of Belarus. 30 June 2020 The “Right to Choose-2020” campaign carries out long-term and short-term observation at all stages of the election campaign for the election of the President of the Republic of Belarus. Long-term monitoring is carried out by the campaign secretariat and its regional coordinators, as well as representatives of campaign member organizations. In total, four interim reports are expected appear, as well as the final report. This report is the second of the four and highlights the stage of collecting signatures for applicants to become presidential candidates and the formation of precinct election commissions. Main conclusions: 1. Independent sociological services are not allowed in Belarus, and the state sociological institutes do not share the official data with the media. According to the online surveys, the rating of incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko is 3-6%. 2. 2. Lukashenko strengthened the positions of the power bloc, changing the government and appointing Roman Golovchenko, the former head of the Military-Industrial Committee of Belarus, to the position of Prime-minister. 3. The authorities did not wait for the date of the election and began to use the forceful scenario of the persecution of Lukashenko’s opponents at the very start of the campaign. At the time of the report, one applicant for the country's top position, two leaders of the candidate’s initiative groups, and a dozen members of the initiative groups are in prison. 4. The collection of signatures for alternative candidates politicized society, and the authorities chose to use force to repay politicization. Out of fifteen applicants, only seven people announced that they collected the required minimum of a hundred thousand signatures. 5. Since, in accordance with the law, the formation of precinct commissions is the prerogative of the local authorities, at this stage of the election campaign, the authorities grossly violated the principle of equal rights of political parties and public associations regardless of their political orientation to participate in the organization and conduct of elections. 6. The Precinct commissions were formed according to the same pattern as during all past election campaigns: appointing the personnel of the state enterprises; 70-80% of the composition of the commissions was maintained from the previous election campaign. The ability to ensure transparency and democratic election procedures by those commissions raises great doubts. 1 The socio-political situation in Belarus (end of May – end of June 2020) One month after the formation of the territorial election commissions (TECs) and the registration of initiative groups, Belarusian society became strongly politicized. This fact was evidenced by the appearance of huge lines to sign for the several alternative candidates, mass rallies of solidarity with the detained candidates and members of their teams, the number of volunteers to become members of precinct election commissions (PECs) incommensurable with the past political campaigns. Public opinion. Almost immediately after the registration of initiative groups, the largest online media and a number of telegram channels conducted surveys among their readers about the support of a particular candidate in the presidential election: Viktor Babariko (former head of Belgazprombank) was the clear leader in all polls, gaining from 50 to 56 % of votes of participants in online surveys. Next in popularity were Valery Tsepkalo (founder of the High Technology Park - HTP), who gained about 15-17% of the votes, and Svetlana Tikhanovskaya (wife of the popular YouTube blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky), about 12% of the survey participants were ready to vote for her. According to online polls, 3-6% were ready to vote for the current head of state, Alexander Lukashenko. Independent sociological services are not allowed in Belarus, and the state sociological institutes do not share the official data with the media. In response to the publication of online polls, the Belarusian authorities banned those, equating them to sociological research. From June 2020 independent online media are subject to a fine for conducting such surveys. The new government. After the registration of the initiative groups and the first pickets to collect signatures, Alexander Lukashenko decided to change the government. Until 2020, the composition of the government has never changed in the period after the announcement of the start of the election campaign until election day. Roman Golovchenko, who was the head of the State Military-Industrial Committee of Belarus, was appointed the new Prime Minister. This appointment occurred in violation of Article 84 of the Constitution: the appointment of the Prime Minister took place by the presidential decree on June 4, 2020, without the consent of the House of Representatives, and with the wording “with the subsequent approval of the appointment with the House of Representatives”. Persecution of candidates for the position of President and members of their teams The authorities began the 2020 election campaign with harsh measures of force and intimidation of potential candidates and members of their teams. The first blow of the power structures came at the team of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya - on May 29, 2020, in Grodno, after a staged provocation of the police with the involvement of a “woman of easy virtue”, the head of the initiative group and Svetlana Tikhanovskaya’s husband, Sergey Tikhanovsky, and at least 15 people, who were present at the picket, were arrested (video evidence of the staging https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFITZFAif-8). The next day it was announced that a criminal case had been initiated on the fact of violence against the police officers; Tikhanovsky and his seven supporters were transferred from Grodno to the Minsk pre-trial detention center. Currently, the criminal case has been re- qualified under the article “Organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order”; ten persons are under arrest with this indictment. On June 4, when appointing the new government, Alexander Lukashenko issued a flurry of criticism of the most popular presidential contenders. Threats sounded from his lips: “They forgot how the former President 2 Karimov in Andijan suppressed the putsch by shooting thousands of people. Everyone condemned him when he died - they stood on their knees, sobbed, cried. We did not experience this, so we don’t want to understand this ... Well, we will remind you!" On June 11, Belgazprombank, which was headed by Viktor Babariko until May 12, was ransacked by the employees of the Department of Financial Investigations (DFI) of the State Control Committee (SCC). Three members of the initiative group Babariko were detained, including the coordinator for the Mogilev region Vladimir Dudarev, the former vice-mayor of Mogilev. DFS SCC opened a criminal case under Part 2 of Art. 243 "Evasion of taxes and fees in a particularly large amount" and according to Part 2 of Art. 235 "Legalization of proceeds of crime, on a large scale." Without issuing an indictment against Viktor Babariko from the investigating authorities on June 12, civil servants and the media began to blame Babariko, and Lukashenko allowed himself to speak about the applicant in a derogatory tone: “scoundrel”, “gang”,” “thick-bellied”. On June 17, the bank account of the electoral fund of Viktor Babariko was blocked (the amount is more than 100 thousand BYN or about 42 thousand US dollars in equivalent), which does not allow to fully realize the suffrage, since the money on the election campaign can be spent only from this fund. The Central Election Commission (CEC) did not react in any way to the violation of the electoral right, citing that these issues were within the competence of the DFI SCC. And on June 18, Viktor Babariko himself and his son, the head of the initiative group, Eduard Babariko, were arrested. They were placed in the KGB pre-trial detention center, the lawyers were allowed to see them only on the second day and afterwards they were allowed again only after four days. The current head of state, Lukashenko, did not miss the opportunity to humiliate also Valery Tsepkalo. Several times he mentioned that it was worth voicing the reasons for Tsepkalo’s dismissal from the HTP, and also allowed himself such expressions as: “insolent”, “ran to me, asked on his knees,” “such a boar as this man.” On June 11, when searches were carried out at Belgazprombank, security forces were also spotted near the campaign headquarters of Valery Tsepkalo, but they did not take any action. The majority of other applicants for the main position of the country and members of their teams were subjected to repressive actions. These were mainly administrative measures in the form of fines and arrests. For example, applicant Yuri Hubarevich was sentenced to 15 days of arrest, applicant Nikolai Kozlov was fined 50 base units (1,350 BYN or $ 562 US), Vital Rymashevski, representative of the initiative group Olga Kovalkova, was fined 20 base units (540 BYN or 224 $ US). The authorities demanded the urgent payment of large fines for participating in protests in 2019 and 2020 from the applicant to candidate for the presidency, Olga Kovalkova. All her property has been seized, mobile phones have been blocked, she is deprived of the right to drive a car, and the right to travel abroad. These measures prevented her, as a potential presidential candidate, from campaigning to collect signatures in her support. Collection of signatures by the applicants. Signature collection in accordance with the elections schedule could be carried out from May 21 to June 19. In order to be nominated for the presidency, applicants had to collect at least 100 thousand signatures of Belarusian citizens during this period.
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