And then there are six: Hi Tech Park founder denied presidential candidate registration
Valery Tsapkala will no longer take part in the presidential race. After the check conducted by the Central Election Commission (CEC), only 75,000 signatures collected for his presidency nomination have been accepted as valid.
As reported earlier, Tsapkala’s team handed over about 160,000 to the commission. As one can see, more than half has been annuled. On June 29, the Belarusian Interior Ministry launched a probe into ‘illegal activities’ in which Valery Tsapkala was allegedly involved.
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.
In Minsk, Vitsebsk, Homiel and other cities of Belarus, the election commissions were massively invalidating signatures for the nomination of Valery Tsapkala and Viktar Babaryka as presidential candidates over the last two days.
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.
