Ten people line up for race for Belarus presidency

Ten people have real chances of becoming the president of Belarus, Secretary of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Belarus Nikolai Lozovik told BelTA.

Following preliminary examination of the authenticity of signatures given in support for nominating the presidential candidates, ten aspirants, who have provided over 100,000 signatures, except for Vladimir Provalsky, retain the right to continue the election campaign and the possibility of becoming presidential candidates.

"The number of authentic signatures in support for each of the ten aspirants exceeds 100,000," said Nikolai Lozovik as he summed up preliminary results of the examination of the authenticity of signatures that district and town election commissions had carried out.

The Central Election Commission of Belarus may register incumbent president Alexander Lukashenko as well as Grigory Kostusev, Aleksei Mikhalevich, Vladimir Neklyayev, Yaroslav Romanchuk, Vitaly Rymashevsky, Andrei Sannikov, Nikolai Statkevich, Viktor Tereshchenko, and Dmitry Uss as candidates for the Belarus presidency.

Nikolai Lozovik said that the largest number of presidential candidates on record may be registered during the present election campaign. In his words, all the ten people have solid chances. They have already passed the most responsible stage of the election campaign – nomination. Now they are supposed to submit a written application saying they agree to stand for the election to the presidential office, a questionnaire with biographical data, and a declaration of income and property (income and property of the nominee, his spouse, adult next of kin that live together and keep house together).

Speaking about the examination of the authenticity of signatures, the CEC Secretary said that it had been liberal. All the candidates had been treated equally. In full compliance with election laws any doubts were interpreted in favor of the potential candidates. "The examination was merciful to avoid any complaints about prejudiced approaches. The liberalization that was observed during the collection of signatures continued during the examination of signatures," said Nikolai Lozovik.

The Central Election Commission of Belarus intends to register the presidential hopefuls by 19 November to give them a month for campaigning.

The presidential election in Belarus is scheduled for 19 December 2010.