Cichanoŭskaja advisor warns voters against legitimizing “non-elections”

February 6, Pozirk. There are no government critics among the registered candidates for the House of Representatives and local councils, said Anatol Labiedźka, adviser on parliamentary cooperation and constitutional reform to opposition leader Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja, appealing to voters to sit out the polls.

A month after the elections, more than 90 percent of voters will not remember the name of the person they voted for, he said in a video address yesterday.

“The uncontested elections are ‘non-elections,’ especially in the absence of international observers from democratic countries,” he added. “How many opposition representatives are among the 57,233 members of the election commissions? Zero. So these are non-elections.”

Labiedźka went on to say that real elections are “a competition of ideas, political parties’ platforms, those in power and those opposing them.” But instead, voters will see only the Communist Party of the Soviet Union “rebranded as Biełaja Ruś, and some of its affiliates, all with a platform to please the authorities as much as possible.”

“If there is no healthy competition, platforms and ideas, people have no choice,” he said.

Real elections result in elected deputies and an internationally recognized parliament, Labiedźka continued. Non-elections result in appointed deputies with salaries well above average, who come to Minsk “to obediently press the buttons.”

“What should you do? Do not participate, do not vote and do not legitimize,” he concluded.

In 2024, elections for the House of Representatives and local councils will be held together for the first time in Belarus. The single day of voting is scheduled for February 25.

The country has not held a single free and fair election according to the standards of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe since 1996.

Human rights activists say the government is set to control all stages of the elections.