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Jauhen Afnahel: It Was Fun to Watch the Hysteria of Yermoshyna

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Jauhen Afnahel: It Was Fun to Watch the Hysteria of Yermoshyna
JAUHEN AFNAHEL
PHOTO BY YURY DRUG/CHARTER97.ORG

BT TV channel showed how Belarusians hate Lukashenka.

Jauhen Afnahel, the coordinator of the European Belarus civil campaign, commented for Charter97.org on the results of the "parliamentary elections" in Belarus.

- What are the peculiarities of these "parliamentary elections"? How did they differ from the previous ones?

- Every political force needs to meet the expectations of people. It is not difficult at all in Belarus. The majority of the population does not accept the dictator and all his entourage. Our main message is the change of power at all levels.

The main peculiarity of the campaign is that topics earlier discussed only in the kitchens and in personal conversations are now voiced on the streets. Our demands met the expectations of the majority of Belarusians. That is why they refused to register the most prominent representatives of the campaign, who consistently and strongly criticized the regime. Hence, the mass removal of candidates of European Belarus in the first week of the campaign, no access to TV and radio, theft of sound-amplifying equipment and other petty tricks. I'm not talking about the show with tiles on Kastrychnitskaya Square and the jumps of the riot police on a column. Everybody saw it thanks to journalists. It was funny to watch the helpless shock of Yermoshina and the nervous convulsions of her election commission members, who were on duty at our pickets, muddled along.

All their efforts were aimed to prevent the discussion of change of power. All their efforts failed. The change of power became the main topic of the campaign, and the words "It's all over for the collective farm dictatorship!" was the most popular slogan of this fall.

- European Belarus and its allies conducted a campaign of an active boycott of the "elections". What did it give you? How do you assess its results?

- The boycott campaign was conducted by the majority of Belarusians. It's no secret that "elections" are falsified and "deputies" are appointed by the authorities. At the first stage of the campaign, it even caused some difficulties for us, as did not understand why we were taking part in the election campaign. Even then it was clear that the "elections" would fail.

We all witnessed the result of the boycott on 17 November at empty polling stations. The figures provided by independent observers showed that Belarusians did not believe the authorities and were not going to participate in their show.

We used the legal opportunities provided by the campaign to speak out our goals and objectives to the maximum number of residents of the country. I think we succeeded. Hundreds of pickets have been held in Minsk, Brest, Babruisk, Orsha and other cities of the country - no political force in Belarus can boast of it. Tens of thousands of booklets and leaflets have been distributed; several mass actions were held. We found that our demands - the key one is the change of power at all levels - are supported by the absolute majority of the country's residents.

Probably the main result was the fact that hundreds of new people joined European Belarus. Some of them immediately began to take part in the activities, many of them came to the meetings on November 15 and 16. I will also note new leaders both in Minsk and in the regions. I can name Andrei Voyniich, Aksana Yushkevich, Mikhail Bandarenka, Arsenij Chyhir, Dzmitry Kazlou, Arsenij Dziadok. I am sure that they will approve themselves in the future.

- Lukashenka and Yermoshyna reacted quite emotionally to the information about the election fraud and their non-recognition of the OSCE. What does it indicate?

- A hit dog will holler. When a child is blamed that he misdid, he or she gets nervous, cries and justifies himself or herself. Some of them keep this habit for the rest of their lives. Both Lukashenka and Yermoshyna know that their "elections" are not interesting, people despise them and do not believe them. What do they have to do? There will never be bold enough to admit it publicly. All that remains is to try to put a brave face on the defeat. But they can't do it anymore. And they get even more furious.

- The state propagandists have changed their tactics of total silence and reacted to your interview with Euronews about "elections" and people's hatred towards Lukashenka. How would you comment on this?

- Let's consider it a small compensation for the deprivation of legal airtime of our ten candidates. However, the official television showed that people hate Lukashenka and his officials. It is a pity that nobody watches it.

- The dictator attracts great importance to these "elections," calling them the "general rehearsal" of the presidential campaign of 2020. What did this "rehearsal" show?

- It showed the lack of support, total distrust, enormous fatigue from this "stability". I believe that someone was greatly disappointed by this "rehearsal". But this campaign gave back hope to many Belarusians.

- How will events develop in the fateful year 2020?

- It will depend on us all. I have already said that the dictator has no support. But it is not enough for changes in the country. It is not enough to have two or three new leaders; dozens of such leaders should appear. It is not enough for hundreds of people to resist - there should be thousands of them. This is the fact that Lukashenka is losing power. The main question today is whether we can use it.

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