West: presidential election results recognition in exchange for parliamenta

Another attempt to gather all presidential candidates together failed on November 8. However, those who came there tended to speak about a common strategy avoiding the idea of a single candidate.

The leader of the Young Front Zmitser Dashkevich and the head of the Belarusian Christian Democracy Pavel Sevyarynets decided to gather everyone. But only Vital Rymasheuki, Uladzimir Nyaklyayeu, Mikola Statkevich and Yaraslau Ramanchuk’s representative Anatol Lyabedzka arrived.
It was planned to make an announcement about the democratic forces’ joint actions during the pre-election campaign. In the first place, it was necessary to present information about the plan of organization of a meeting of all candidates in October Square on November 24. But the reality revised the plans and the absence of the other presidential candidates made Vital Rymasheuski mention unity again. But the unity means October Square now.

Vital Rymasheuski: “This is the only scenario leading to the unity and consolidation of the democratic forces. In my opinion, this is the only way to victory allowing us to use the pre-election campaign to struggle with Lukashenka’s regime instead of playing up to it”.



Mikola Statkevich looked around sadly and confessed: a single candidate was out of the question.

Mikola Statkevich: “I do not hope that the opposition will get a single candidate which could be extremely effective in the current situation. We should at least discuss a common strategy and joint actions now. At the least, we should stop confronting with each other in public to the authorities’ delight”.



He suggested gathering in the square on November 24 to protest against the way election committees were created and against the imitation of the election planned by the authorities.
Having supported the main points of Statkevich’s statement, Nyaklyayeu urged people to come to the square not to protest but to support – for instance, to support a democratic election. He reminded that he visited all the possible meetings dedicated to the election of “the single one” and complained about the BPF Party.

Uladzimir Nyaklyayeu: “To tell the truth, the Belarusian People’s Front has surprised me. They have been taking part in all street actions since the confrontation began and they have not come to discuss the necessity of the square, this is an incorrect move”.



Having grasped at the idea of a single candidate, the UCP leader Anatol Lyabedzka noted that there were goals that even a single candidate would not be able to reach.

Anatol Lyabedzka: “Our top priority is to win. And our minimal goal is to start negotiations between the authorities and the opposition through intermediary of important international organizations”.

He explained the UCP’s refusal to choose a single candidate by the fact that his party was working with the electors who still doubted who to vote for. He also suggested his own version of joint actions.

Anatol Lyabedzka: "We should define the segments of the electorate we should work with in the remaining period of time and to decide who is responsible for it”.



He also suggested composing an appeal to list all their complaints including complaints about the principle of the creation of election committees. Laydbedzka said they would be coordinated with those who would like to express their political power in reality. It should not be like this: everyone likes speaking a lot but when it comes to sending observers to election committees it turns out that only the UCP and “Fair World” do it.  

An ERB reporter asked the politicians whether they had decided that there would be no single candidate. It resulted in another attempt to explain that all of them were steadfast adherents of a single candidate. Only Statkevich noted sadly that he did not believe in the existence of such a person and Lyabedzka failed to control himself and said:

Anatol Lyabedzka: “I suggest that my colleagues should avoid discussing the idea of a signal candidate until we have something to tell journalists. Stop agitating journalists. We will gather them and inform them if we get something real. For example, there were 11 candidates, then we had five and then we will have two out of five. So we should better be coordinated and put off the discussion until we have something to say”.

ERB: “Will you have anything to say in the end?”
Mіkola Statkevіch: “We will not gather you if we don’t”.
Anatol Lyabedzka: “We will discuss something else then”.



According to the candidates, they do not believe in “the foreign factor” at this election: neither the West nor the East will help. They can only provide moral support. That is why the internal reserves and the square are the only things that lead to a victory. Furthermore, the politicians say that the West has already made a deal with Lukashenka: it will recognize the results of the elections if there are no evident violations in exchange for early parliamentary elections. However, they did not confess whether they had got the information from.

Photo by: Zmitser Lukashuk