Central election commission registers 94 groups for nomination of candidates from United Pro-democratic Forces

The central election commission as of July 28 registered 94 groups that will be collecting signatures for the registration of parliamentary candidates from the United Pro-democratic Forces (UPF). Applications from two groups in support of members of the Belarusian Popular Front (BPF) have been rejected for various reasons.

In all, the UPF applied for the registration of 98 nomination groups. The United Civic Party (UCP) seeks to register 28 candidates. All the 28 nomination groups have been registered. Some of these 28 aspirants will be nominated by the party directly and will not need to garner 1000 signatures, UCP Chairman Anatol Lyabedzka told Euroradio.

"Twenty eight nomination groups have been registered and are working in nearly 40 districts. All have been granted registration. The party holds a convention on August 10 to nominate some of them, approximately 10 to 12 people, directly."

The BPF has the second largest number of nomination groups. Twenty-two of 25 BPF nomination groups were registered by the morning of July 28.

The central election commission has registered 12 of the 13 groups for the nomination of candidates from the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (BSDP) "Hramada," 18 groups in support of aspirants from the Belarusian Party of Communists (BPC), four groups for aspirants from the Belarusian Party of Labor, three for the Belarusian Women's Party "Nadzeya" and seven for the Belarusian Christian Democracy party. 

The central election commission may register two more groups, one for a BPF aspirant and the other for a member of the BSDP "Hramada" this afternoon. Therefore, the UPF may propose a total of 96 candidates for registration.