Seven people, including former head of Belgazprombank Viktor Babariko, are continuing to run in the presidential race in Belarus after collecting signatures in their support and passing them to electoral authorities, Lidia Ermoshina, the head of the Belarusian Central Election Commission, told Sputnik on Monday
MINSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd June, 2020) Seven people, including former head of Belgazprombank Viktor Babariko, are continuing to run in the presidential race in Belarus after collecting signatures in their support and passing them to electoral authorities, Lidia Ermoshina, the head of the Belarusian Central Election Commission, told Sputnik on Monday.
Last week, Babariko, who led Belgazprombank for 20 years prior to starting a presidential campaign, his son Eduard and 20 other bank officials were questioned and detained by the Department of Financial Investigations of the Belarusian State Control Committee in a criminal case involving tax evasion and money laundering. On Saturday, lawyer Dmitry Laevsky told Sputnik that Babariko was indicted and was in a pre-trial detention center. However, the detention of Babariko does not prevent him from running for president and being elected the head of state if he is registered as a candidate, according to the lawyer.
"Seven people, who wanted to run in the presidential race, [remained]. These people passed signatures [to territorial commissions for verification]. I do not know how many [signatures] have been handed over. This will be clear after a check will be completed within 10 days," Ermoshina said.
Ermoshina also said that the commission planned to reveal on June 30 the number of signatures for each of the candidates for the presidency that it recognizes as valid.
According to the commission's head, so far, only representatives of Babariko have submitted a full package of documents to the commission for his registration as a presidential candidate.
"The meeting [on the registration of presidential candidates] is scheduled for July 14," Ermoshina added.
The Central Election Commission of Belarus initially registered 15 candidates for the presidency. However, four candidates subsequently withdrew their candidacies from the presidential race, some of them in favor of incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko, who is seeking his sixth term in office.
According to Ermoshina, apart from Lukashenko and Babariko, the commission has also received signatures from Valery Tsepkalo, the former ambassador of Belarus to the US, Andrei Dmitriev, the co-chairman of the Tell the Truth public association, Sergei Cherechen, the chairman of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party Gramada, ex-lawmaker Anna Kanopatskaya, and Svetlana Tikhonovsky, the wife of Belarusian video blogger Sergei Tikhonovsky, who himself has been seeking to run for presidency.
Those running in the election will have to submit documents to be registered as candidates by July 4 and the registration procedure is expected to be held from July 5-14. The election is scheduled for August 9.
