42K confirm support for Lukashenka’s rival after authorities invalidate thousands of signatures
Nearly 42,000 people have responded to the call of wannabe presidential candidate Valery Tsapkala to protect their signatures, according to the official website of the politician.
On June 30, the CEC announced that Valery Tsapkala had not collected the necessary number of signatures to become a presidential candidate. The commission approved only 75,000 out of 160,000 signatures and said that Tsapkala would no longer take part in the presidential race.
In turn, Tsapkala wrote in his Twitter that he had no intention to give up and would fight for each signature. Later, he urged the people who supported him by putting their signatures to contact the campaign office on their website, via Telegram or Viber.
16,900 Minskers have already confirmed the authenticity of their signatures for Tsapkala’s nomination; by the moment, there have been 7,500 confirmations from residents of Minsk region; 5,400 – from Hrodna region; 3,600 – from Brest region; 2,900 – from Homiel region; 2,500 – from Vitsebsk region.
According to the CEC, the following persons managed to get the required 100,000 signatures collected:
- Alyaksandr Lukashenka (1,939,572);
- Viktar Babaryka (165,744);
- Syarhei Cherachan (143,109);
- Hanna Kanapatskaya (146,588);
- Andrey Dzmitryeu (106,841);
- Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya (104,757 signatures).
It should be noted that some candidates turn out to have more signatures after the check. Thus, Syarhei Cherachan previously reported the total of 106,000 signatures filed, but the CEC states he gained 143,109. Former MP Hanna Kanapatskaya is facing a similar situation: she made mention of 110,000 signatures, but in the CEC reports, she has 36,000 more.
Since the beginning of the 2020 election campaign, incumbent president Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s would be rival Viktar Babaryka, might-have been opponent Syarhei Tsikhanouski, politicians Mikalai Statkevich and Pavel Sevyarynets, as well as dozens of people have been placed into custody. In late June, the Belarusian Interior Ministry also launched a probe into ‘illegal activities’ in which presidential hopeful Valery Tsapkala was allegedly involved.
