Belarusian Christian Democrats adrift after split

February 12, Pozirk. A faction of the Belarusian Christian Democracy declared political prisoner Pavieł Sieviaryniec the party’s sole leader at a meeting in Warsaw on February 10, Radyjo Svaboda reported.

It declared Hieorhij Dźmitruk to be the BCD co-chairman.

Co-chairs Vital Rymašeŭski and Volha Kavalkova, spokesman Dzianis Sadoŭski and former Mahiloŭ branch head Aleh Aksionaŭ have been expelled from the BCD, the meeting said. Candidates for the upcoming Coordination Council election have been selected.

As media reported the meeting today, the BCD website criticized the reshuffle as Dźmitruk’s “private initiative.”

Dźmitruk was expelled from a party committee last year, it said.

No more than five “verified” Christian Democrats were present at his event, it added.

“Hieorhij Dźmitruk deliberately misleads Belarusian media, presenting the activities of his private initiative as the work of the BCD organizing committee,” it said.

It accused the politician of staging a provocation to discredit the BCD “as part of the democratic movement as a whole,” and claimed that his family business was dependent on the Belarusian regime.

The legitimate BCD leadership last met on February 8, it said. It made its own list of candidates for the Coordination Council.