Opposition decides how to make Statkevich presidential candidate

The Belarusian democratic forces have discussed the way to support the candidature of political prisoner Mikola Statkevich at the presidential election.

The representatives of the majority of Belarusian democratic forces met on January 21. Leader of the party of the left Fair World Syarhei Kalyakin did not attend the meeting and did not send any representative either, head of the BPF Party Alyaksei Yanukevich told Euroradio.

Yanukevich: “Everyone except Syarhei Kalyakin or his representative attended the meeting. Statkevich’s representatives and his wife Maryna Adamovich came. All the present agreed that it was necessary to create Mikola Statkevich’s initiative group and that a single plan and centre were needed for it. It is also necessary to choose the head of the initiative together. We found out that there were three approaches to the creation of initiative groups.”

However, the opinions on the way the other political forces should participate in the election differ, Yanukevich admitted. “There are two ways. Statkevich may be the only candidate and if he is not registered, we will boycott the election. The other variant is creating Statkevich’s initiative groups and other candidates’ initiative groups.”

No final decisions have been made this time. The democratic forces will meet again next week. The politicians will organize consultations in their structures by the time.

Mikola Statkevich’s photo: AFP