Eight candidates are admitted from the applications for the nominations for the presidency

Eight candidates are admitted from the applications for the nominations for the presidency

Considering 15 applications, the Central Election Commission chose eight of them for registration as action groups. Now candidates must pass through the following stages of selection. Until August 21st, their supporters will campaign around the streets, visit the apartments of voters and place members in agreed places in towns and cities with the purpose of drawing attention to the candidate.


Which groups will compete for the attention of the voters? The list contains eight names. Among them is the acting President Alexander Lukashenko, the Chairman of the left party ‘A Just World’ Sergei Kalyakin, and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Sergei Gaidukevich. Decisions on these candidates were made one week previously. Now they have been supplemented by active campaigner from the ‘Tell the Truth’ party Tatiana Korotkevich, the Chairman of the United Civic Party of Belarus, Anatoly Lebedko, the supreme ataman (commander) of the Belarusian Cossacks Nikolay Ulakhovich, a teacher from Brest Zhanna Romanovskaya, and also the economist Victor Tereshchenko.

There were also campaign groups that were not registered, among them: the kindergarten teacher from Minsk Tamara Biryukova, ex-candidate for the presidency of the 2010 campaign who is serving a prison sentence Nikolay Statkevich, an entrepreneur from Novopolotsk Andrey Konovets, Novopolotsk photographer Alexander Yudaev, advertising expert from Minsk Irina Pershina, and also a certain Sergey Zablotsky. This latter candidate is unknown and remains a mystery even for the Central Election Commission.


The Central Election Commission was impartial at the session. If your application does not fulfil all the legislative requirements you will be refused. For example, it was discovered that businessman Andrey Konovets had a previous conviction in Russia. The Commission expressed its concerns about the disorganisation of competitors for the presidential post. In some cases, the applications were made with mistakes, with confusion of surnames and addresses. Thus, Tamara Biryukova and Alexander Yudaev did not have time to give in all the necessary documents. The party of veteran Victor Tolmachev was not registered either. He presented his documents to the Central Election Committee on July 20th in spite of the fact that the last date for the submission of applications was July 17th.

Similar to the last elections, some names appeared for the first time in the political arena. Often these candidates make a decision to participate in the election campaign spontaneously or following their own aims. They do not have a serious political platform; they simply want to promote themselves. “There have been instances when artistes and businessmen have applied for the presidency. It is not forbidden; there have always been such people. But it is a pity that when these characters nominate themselves for the presidency, they are thinking only of their own ambitions,” said the Secretary of the Central Election Committee, Nikolay Lozovik. “People should think about dedicating themselves to the country and first perhaps proving oneself not at the highest level, but in a smaller post. By gaining the confidence of the population and being seen to do something worthwhile, they will have a better chance of realising their ambitions.”