Yermoshina comments on Belarusians’ readiness to vote for political parties
As reported by BelTA, in her talk with the STV TV channel, the former chairperson of the Central Election Commission, Lidia Yermoshina, shared her view, “We have no well-formed party culture, and – I think – citizens are not ready to vote for parties. Nevertheless, if we fail to somehow inspire their participation, voters will never be ready for this.”
According to Ms. Yermoshina, parties are well-known and popular in certain states simply because they are the main participant in the electoral process. "It is parties that divide the mandates, come to power, and form the government. Therefore, they are known, their activities are seen – and both positive and negative aspects can be assessed. In our country, parties act as a background, as certain communities that can nominate candidates. Later, the persons who become deputies – even if they were nominated by a party – are completely invisible to voters as members of these parties," she stated.
"In my opinion, without switching to voting based on party lists, we will not bring our society to a state of readiness to accept political parties as such, as real political forces," Ms. Yermoshina concluded.