Next presidential, local elections may be held on same day

 

The central election commission said the government could save about $7 million by holding presidential and parliamentary elections on the same day. Alyaksandr Kazulin, former presidential candidate released from jail earlier this year, is not eligible to run in the 2011 presidential race.  

Mikalay Lazavik, secretary of the central election commission, says the presidential election must be held at least two months before 8 March 2011, when the incumbent's terms runs out. Local elections are to be held around the same time with a three-month difference. The central election commission says this is a good opportunity to save public funds.

The central election commission has not yet calculated how much the government can save. Lazavik says that an election costs about $1 per voter. With about seven million voters in the country the authorities could save $7 million.

Political analyst Yury Chavusau says that holding the elections on the same day would give the authorities an advantage over the opposition. "There is nothing good about it. Many of those activists who could work for the presidential campaign would focus on local elections. It will depend how many opposition candidate will be running for president. Politically, the simultaneous elections would benefit the authorities."

Lazavik argues that the presidential poll will help stir up public interest in the local elections. He noted that it would be easier to organize the elections on the same day rather than one election immediately after the other.

Asked by Euroradio who may run for president, Lazavik named Syarhey Haydukevich, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party. He noted that Kazulin would not be eligible because he has a criminal record.

Kazulin was arrested during an opposition protest following the 2006 presidential election and sentenced to 5 years and six months in prison on what was widely regarded as politically motivated charges. Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka pardoned him earlier this year.

Uladzimir Labkovich, an election monitor, said that holding two elections on the same day would not complicate observers' work if authorities pose no obstacles.

"It would be difficult to combine parliamentary and presidential elections because of a difference in the composition of election commissions. Election commissions are the same in local and presidential elections. Therefore, only goodwill, which the authorities failed to show during the recent parliamentary elections, could influence the work of observers," Labkovich told Euroradio.

A final decision on election dates will depend on the president who sets the date of local elections. The House of Representatives sets the date of presidential elections in Belarus.