Viktar Babaryka Demands To Ban Lukashenka From Participating In Elections

If the violations of the law by the ruler are confirmed.

Viktar Babaryka, running for president of Belarus, filed an appeal to the CEC on the facts of violating the legislation during the election campaign. He referred to the coercion to sign up for Lukashenka at work, insults of candidates by the dictator and other illegal actions, tut.by reports.

During the first week of the campaign Viktar Babaryka's team has seen an incredibly large number of violations that take place at the local level, and it has data and screenshots that show that universities, enterprises and public associations force people to sign up for Lukashenka.

- Plus, the speeches of Lukashenka, now a contender for the post of head of state, and the state mass media contain, in my opinion, quite a lot of information, which can be considered as violating the law. For example, direct insults against candidates and concealment of some information when they say, for example, "is financed from abroad". This is a direct violation. If you have facts, present them, and if they have not, it is defamation. And, of course, the illegal actions [detentions] that take place. We have summed up this whole set of violations in the Declaration on Fair Elections and are taking the first step to follow it: we have collected materials, screenshots and submitted all this to the CEC. The CEC is obliged to respond to us on some issues within three days, on others - within ten, - Viktar Babaryka told reporters.

Babaryka did not cite specific facts submitted to the CEC, but said that among them there is an appeal of the students, whom the rector told to come with passports and sign for Lukashenka as part of the educational process. Those who did it were given a "home free" grade for the exam. Babaryka passed the audio recordings to the CEC along with the appeal.

In the appeal, which Babaryka published on his website, he points out that he never claimed that Lukashenka had offered him the post of the Prime Minister, as well as he had never used money of foreign people to finance his election campaign.

- The information disseminated by [Lukashenka] is deliberately false, dishonors me, Viktar Babaryka, and is slander. I note that these statements were made publicly among the labor collectives and covered by the mass media, - Babaryka appealed to the CEC.

In his appeal, Viktar Babaryka asks the CEC to ban Lukashenka from participating in the elections, if violations in his actions are found.