Kanapackaja applies for registration as presidential candidate

December 13, Pozirk. Former MP Hanna Kanapackaja who ran for president four years ago has applied for registration as presidential candidate for the upcoming January poll, the central election commission’s press office says.
Kanapackaja submitted her bid after Alaksandar Chižniak, Aleh Hajdukievič and Siarhiej Syrankoŭ, all of whom lead government-loyal parties.
Should authorities allow Kanapackaja to run, she may claim to represent the interests of pro-European Belarusians, opposition politician Anatol Labiedźka said earlier, commenting on his former party mate’s presidential bid.
Alaksandar Łukašenka, whose supporters claimed to have collected 2.5 million ballot-access signatures for his application, has until December 21 to submit his bid in person or by proxy.
Under the Belarusian Electoral Code, a candidate must garner at least 100,000 signatures to run for president. The required application documents include a biography, income and property statements, and a financial report from the campaign fund.
Belarus will hold its seventh presidential election from January 21 to 26, with the whole election cycle limited to just three months. The current campaign is taking place in a purged political landscape amid a new wave of crackdown on regime critics.
The Belarusian opposition dismissed the election as a sham, noting that political reprisals prevent pro-democracy candidates from running and voters from freely expressing their will.
The country has not held a single free and fair election since 1996 by the standards of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Two pro-government party leaders apply for registration as presidential candidates
- Politics, SocietyBelarusian community in Poland exceeds 145,000The material is available only to POZIRK+
- Economy
- PoliticsKyiv uncovers Ukrainian conscripts’ escape route to BelarusThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- PoliticsCardinal Gugerotti to visit Belarus next weekThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- EconomyBiełstat: industrial inventories up 36 percent in January-SeptemberThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- Politics
- PoliticsŁatuška praises OSCE fact-finding mechanism for exposing transnational repressionThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- Politics
- PoliticsReprisals: new political prisoner designations, censorship, special probeThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- Politics, SecurityNumber of Belarusian asylum applicants in Poland rises tenfold in four yearsThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- EconomyGDP grows by 1.6 percent in Q1–3, Biełstat saysThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- EconomyFarmers to get paid higher bonuses in first two years of employment after graduationThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- PoliticsŁukašenka schedules people’s assembly for DecemberThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- PoliticsLithuanian MP warns Vilnius against downgrading Cichanoŭskaja's securityThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- SecurityMinsk targets Kalinoŭski regiment members in special probeThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- Politics, SocietyBelarus’ Catholic leader invites pope to visit the countryThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- SocietySearch continues for missing Belarusian woman in Myanmar — envoyThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- Economy
- EconomyBelarus’ industrial output drops by 0.8 percentThe material is available only to POZIRK+
- Economy