Statkevich Feels Shame with Regards to Africa

A presidential candidate in Belarus, the leader of the organizing committee of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (People's Hramada) Nikolai Statkevich, speaking on TV with an appeal to voters on November 23, said he was ashamed with regards to Africa, where votes counting is carried out in a more democratic way than in Belarus — heart of Europe, with the first constitution, adopted in 16th century.The candidate noted that observers in Belarus can only see the voting process itself on the day of election, while only "loins of the committee members" could be watched in counting of votes, wheres an "African country" prefers to show each ballot to all the observers. Statkevich Brought the Constitution of Belarus Having mentioned some facts of his biography, the leader of the People's Hramada draw his attebtion to a "very important book" — the Constitution, which states that the source of power in the country is the people. "I would like today to talk about the way we, the people, exercise power in this country," the candidate said. According to Nikolai Statkevich, information is needed to govern the country. However, as he says, Belarusian state television does not give citizens the full and objective information. "Let's take a recent terrible tragedy in Pinsk with numerous casualties. Were we informed about this accident streight away? But the horrors in other countries we've got more than enough. Or another example. Presidential elections are ongoing. They began two months ago. Less than a month is left to the voting day. Did you know all the candidates? Was it TV that's made you informed of them? These are presidential elections, targeting to choose the Head of State! "Junior Eurovision Song Contest" seems more important than the upcoming elections. But, sure, I agree that it's a very important piece of news," the candidate said. He also noted that the candidates, alternative to the incumbent president, were given only nine days to appeal to voters on TV, following by two weeks of silence. "But on the other hand, there will be the same man on the screen, whom we've already been watching for 17 years. And he will be proving how how genius he is, while all the rest remaining freaks," Nikolai Statkevich said. At the same time, in his opinion, Belarus owns tens of thousands of professionals: "two thousand directors of collective farms, and most of them work much better than the director of "Haradzets" farm once did. The head of Belarusian Social Democratic Party (PH) also noted that Belarus electoral commissions are formed by a vertical, controlled by a single person. "And it turns out that one person creates electoral commissions to conduct the elections, including his elections," he said, reporting that election commissions are 99.75% composed of representatives of one candidate and 0.25% of all the others. Nikolai Statkevich expressed doubt about the need for five days of early voting in Belarus. According to him, people in government service, students and other people are forcibly herded to polling stations during this period, following by substitution of their voices "neatly, in piles." "It turns out that a man became president at the fair elections 17 years ago, climbed up the ladder and simply removed it," the candidate said. Belarusian Officials Serve President, Not the People, StatkevichAccording to the head of the Social Democrats, the situation, where all the local officials and enterprise directors are appointed, but not elected by people, lets them decline responsibility for the voters but try to please their leadership. As noted by the candidate for the presidency, Alexander Lukashenko has not created any significant plant in Belarus, has let equipment fall into disrepair, external debt to grow, emigration to increase (up to 1 million people in Russia alone), the county's population to decrease by 850 thousand, pensions to rise only in the run-up to the elections. According to him, a small business that could hel