Results of ballot-access signature collection announced

The head of the central election commission on Monday announced the exact number of ballot-access signatures submitted by the 11 presidential hopefuls remaining in the race.

While talking to reporters, Lidziya Yarmoshyna said that Ryhor Kastusyow, the Belarusian Popular Front's nominee, had submitted 107,083 signatures.

The nomination group of Alyaksandr Lukashenka submitted 1,113,014 signatures; of Ales Mikhalevich, a former deputy chairman of the Belarusian Popular Front, 120,531 signatures; and of Uladzimir Nyaklyayew, leader of the "Tell the Truth!" campaign, 161,824 signatures.

According to Ms. Yarmoshyna, 109,338 signatures were submitted by Vitsyebsk businessman Uladzimir Pravalski; 128,699 signatures by Yaraslaw Ramanchuk, deputy chairman of the United Civic Party; 105,318 signatures by Vital Rymashewski, co-chairman of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party; 150,168 signatures by Andrey Sannikaw, a former deputy foreign minister; 117,989 signatures by Mikalay Statkevich, chairman of the Narodnaya Hramada Belarusian Social Democratic Party; 122,520 signatures by economist Viktar Tsyareshchanka; and 110,753 signatures by Dzmitry Us, director general of a company called Trivium.

Ms. Yarmoshyna said that "what catches the eye is a big number of mistakes." She noted that the nomination groups of some hopefuls had submitted photocopies instead of original ballot-access signature sheets.

Election commissions are to verify the authenticity of ballot-access signatures within a 10-day period and deliver their reports to the central election commission not later than November 13.

The candidate registration stage will run from November 14 till November 23. The central election commission earlier said that it would announced its decisions on all contenders on one day to give the candidates equal time for their campaigns.