Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Lukashenka forms a puppet “parliament” again
- 29.08.2011, 10:22
The country's deep economic crisis does not hinder Alyaksandr Lukashneka's preparations for the oncoming parliamentary “elections”.
Public association “Belaya Rus” (White Russia) has recently announced it will be turned into a party. Experts analyze speeches of local ideologists and forecast amendments to the country's electoral legislation, Russian Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes.
The pro-governmental republican public association “Belaya Rus” announced the long expected changes last week: it will become a party of people's unity.
“The organization is ready now to increase its political role and behave more actively,” Anatoly Rubinau, the speaker of the upper house of the Belarusian parliament, said two weeks ago giving to understand that the idea had been approved by the country's leadership.
Talks of turning “Belaya Rus” into a party similar to Russia's United Russia have been heard since 2007, when the organization was founded. Lukashenka has always refuted an idea of creating a party of power. However, he said that he would not stand against a grass-root initiative. He also named another condition for creating a party - “when the country faces difficult time”. The Belarusian authorities seem to estimate the current situation as “difficult time”, though they never admit it.
Besides, Belarus will held parliamentary elections by the end of September 2012, experts remind. Belarus can carry out the poll only if the electoral legislation is changed, head of the Central Election Commission Lidziya Yarmoshyna hinted in November last year. “We are ready to use the proportional voting system,” she said in an interview. In her opinion, it would give an impact to development of political party life in the country.
As NG has already written, “Belaya Rus”, an organization of some 120,000 members, is not formed on grass-root initiatives, as Lukashenka and his propagandists claim. Officials and directors of state-run companies were the first to join the organization followed teachers and doctors, who were enrolled involuntary.
Taking into account that opposition parties have been weakened by the recent repressions in Belarus, the forthcoming parliamentary campaign can be considered non-competitive. Creating a party of power and transition to proportional voting can give the authorities not only an opportunity to form another puppet “parliament”, but to do this rather legitimately. Experts suppose that Lukashenka does not give up a hope of recognizing the Belarusian “parliament” by Europe and does not plan to lose power.