Page 28 - BNE_magazine_07_2020

28 I Cover story bne July 2020
According to the nation's Investigative Committee, one of the country's main law enforcement bodies, Tsikhanovski and his supporters had allegedly organised an illegal gathering that resulted in "group actions flagrantly disturbing public order and involving blatant disobedience to lawful police orders". The agency added that two police officers had been hurt
in the incident.
Babariko is maybe the most popular of the opposition candidates and has campaigned on a platform of strong support for the Belarusian culture, which also means resisting integration with Russia – something Lukashenko has hinted at doing.
Recently Babariko saw his Belgazprombank raided by the police and many members of the senior management arrested on money-laundering charges. Babariko has been CEO of the Russian-owned bank
for over 20 years, but was not arrested or indicted himself. He is running for office against Lukashenko and is a popular opposition figure. The bank has been placed in temporary administration by the Central Bank of Belarus (NBB) despite the protestations of Gazprom,
its ultimate owner.
Tsepkalo is a former member of Lukashenko’s cabinet, one-time Belarusian ambassador to the US,
and the head of the highly successful technological park that is responsible for billions of dollars' worth of software service exports. He got the idea for
a Belarusian technology park after visiting Silicon Valley while he was US ambassador, and became Lukashenko’s advisor for science and technology
after returning to Minsk in 2002 and promoting the idea. The park has been
a runaway success. In 2017 Lukashenko unexpectedly fired him. He has been working in the private sector for a variety of governments as an IT consultant since.
In many ways Tsepkalo's candidacy
is the most surprising, as he is from Lukashenko’s establishment, has served in high office and is now rebelling against the system that he benefited from. It is this background that led some to ask whether the young and
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Authorities may consider Sergei Tsikhanovski the most dangerous as he takes his message to the street in popular rallies.
handsome diplomat-cum-businessman was simply a straw man being put up by the establishment to deflect the protest vote, but that he would withdraw from the race at the last minute.
Other commentators say Lukashenko is not that sophisticated, but also claim that Tsepkalo is not interested in winning this election and is simply attempting to build up some political capital for when the old man finally leaves office. Russian commentators note that unlike his fellow opposition leaders, Tsepkalo's criticisms of Lukashenko have been mild.
Three candidates have submitted the 100,000 signatures needed to stand for election. Lukashenko’s headquarters was the first to announce he had the requisite number of signatures on June 5. The second was Viktor Babariko on June 6, who quit his banking job to run for president.
Former deputy of the lower house of parliament Anna Kanopatskaya has also collected 100,000 names, she says. She tried to run for Parliament last year, but the Central Election Commission (CEC) annulled enough of her signatures on that petition for her to be barred from standing.
A fifth candidate is Natalya Kisel, deputy chairman of the Region Eight Freight Carriers Association, working for the Kisel
V.V. transport company. Kisel has not had a public profile as a politician but she has been active in industrial negotiations to solve many industry disputes.
The CEC says there is a total of 15 registered candidates, but has not released a list of all the names. Registration of candidates closes on July 4.
But the people are determined to see some of their own candidates' names
on the ballot. In what has been dubbed the “signature revolution” they have queued up for hours in mile-long lines to sign their names to the petitions of the independent candidates. Would-be presidents need to gather a minimum of 100,000 names in order to be eligible to stand in the elections.
Lukashenko strikes back
Lukashenko is not going to go without a fight. He has not been hesitant to put the riot police on the street in the past. The last parliamentary elections were mired by a riot where protestors broke into and occupied the parliamentary building until riot police arrived and brutally cleared them.
The president has warned that he will “not give the country away” and has threatened bloodshed by drawing parallels to Andijan, the Uzbek city where the former Uzbek president, Islam Karimov, ordered police to fire into a crowd of protestors in a 2005 demonstration, killing several