Andrei Yahorau: The election campaign will be boring

The number of registered candidates representing opposition parties is on the average not much higher than that during previous parliamentary elections. Such an opinion was expressed to the Information Service of «EuroBelarus» by political scientist...

The number of registered candidates representing opposition parties is on the average not much higher than that during previous parliamentary elections. Such an opinion was expressed to the Information Service of “EuroBelarus” by political scientist Andrei Yahorau, director of the Center for European Transformation, who compared the results of the registration of candidates to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly.

Let's remind that the registration of parliamentary candidates in Belarus finished on August 23. 363 candidates will contend for 110 mandates, and in 4 districts there will be only one candidate per one place.

According to Andrei Yahorau, right now the campaign is being conducted at the Belarusan authorities’ dictation, and in general, “nothing depends on actions of opposition parties” during this election. “It has been already clear for a long time. They are just pawns in the game being played by the power today. At this juncture, it is difficult to say what kind of a game it is, but meanwhile it all looks like the authorities stick to their standard scenario of manipulating the election process”, Andrei Yahorau underlined.

The political scientist noticed that “some intrigue can only be set by actions of the authorities that can decide whether to allow or not to allow several opposition candidates, being more or less loyal, more or less known, entering the Parliament”.

It is traditionally necessary to expect from the election campaign our society’s increased attention to the political life of the country. “During election campaigns, civil activity is traditionally increasing; new people come to politics; there appear new political movements and initiatives. Practically, there is always a trail of activity after elections, which lasts for some time after the electoral campaign. There are various sequences of flash mobs, pickets. And this time, the same intensification will take place”, believes the director of the Center for European Transformation.

However, it is still impossible to speak about a possibility of any cardinal changes in connection with this electoral campaign. “The basic problem is that if there is no consolidation of political forces in one united subject, able to act as an alternative force in relation to the existing regime, then from a political point of view all these actions will be useless, as well as the ones that took place in previous years”, Andrei Yahorau noticed.

As for the media, even taking into account the incipience of television debates, one should not expect anything special either, thinks the expert. He reminds that “the result of the debates during the last presidential election was unfortunate”.

The reason of the despondency of the Belarusan political struggle has a rather simple explanation. “When there are no elections, then there is nothing to struggle for. And when there is nothing to struggle for, there is no competition and, accordingly, there will be neither creative steps, nor quality. Therefore, we shall see quite boring, already familiar to us performances, in former theses”, the political scientist predicts.

“If something vivid comes up, it will only happen due to some candidates’ activity who will try to use this campaign for the advantage of their own public relations in order to win popularity, which can be used then in the development of their own projects. Here, there may be something amusing and interesting. Still, by and large, the campaign will be boring”, Andrei Yahorau summed up.