Belarus parliament elections

MINSK, 3 August (BelTA) – 630 people have been nominated candidates in Belarus. This figure was voiced at a session of the Central Election Commission (CEC), BelTA has learned.

CEC head Lidia Yermoshina noted that she is happy with the figure of 630 people because it is 130 people more than four years ago. “Of course, this figure will not hold. Some will drop out of the race. But in any case it gives the voters a choice and creates contest,” Lidia Yermoshina said when talking to journalists after the CEC session.

Lidia Yermoshina said that “this election campaign is going to be more active, and therefore the voter turnout is likely to be high.”

Election commissions have received 765 sets of documents. Among the potential candidates to Parliament 145 are women, or 23% of the total number of nominees, 28 (4.4%) are members of the House of Representatives of the current convocation. Commenting on the last figure, Lidia Yermoshina noted that in percentage terms it is the same as during the 2012 parliamentary elections.

The Chairperson of the Central Election Commission said that among the nominees there are many who took advantage of two or even three methods to get nominated (through collection of signatures, nomination by a labor collective or a political party): these are 111 people (or 17.6% of the total number of nominees) and 12 persons (1.9%) respectively. 507 people, or 80.5% of candidates to Parliament, got nominated using only one method.

According to the CEC, during the nomination campaign the most active political party was the Liberal Democratic Party. It nominated 90 people (14.3% of all nominees). The United Civil Party nominated 67 candidates (10.6%), and the BPF Party - 60 (9.5%).