Découverte de la Biélorussie/ Bélarus

Milinkevich announces readiness to run for president again

Source : Belarusky novosti 16.11.09

Opposition politician Alyaksandr Milinkevich has announced his readiness to run for president in the 2011 election, BelaPAN said.

Speaking at the Belarusian European Forum in Minsk on November 14, the 62-year-old leader of the Movement for Freedom said that he was against an election boycott. “If we don't take part in elections, we deprive people of hope, deprive them of choice and drive them into an even bigger depression, that's why we must participate in elections,” he said.
Mr. Milinkevich also called on opposition forces to put forward their candidates in next year's local elections, noting that they must campaign for Belarus' independence, democracy and closer ties with the European Union.
The politician said that he was not using the forum to launch his election campaign, adding that the event was needed to find out what support a pro-European candidate could enjoy in the coming election. He said that he did not mind the opposition being represented by more than one candidate in the presidential election.

“The Belarusian Independence Bloc that we have created and this forum are just a prototype of a future coalition,” Mr. Milinkevich said, adding that the coalition would likely field its contender in the presidential election.
In remarks signalinggrowing divisions within the opposition, Mr. Milinkevich stressed that he could not “take part in an election bloc that includes parties with the opposite views.”

Referring to his presidential run in 2006, Mr. Milinkevich revealed that he had experienced a sense of unease when speaking about his vision for the future development of Belarus. “I was to express my views about the country's European development and at the same time to try not to offend the Communists who were part of the bloc and who advocated the idea of integration with Russia,” he said, adding that there were no such divisions within the Belarusian Independence Bloc.
Mr. Milinkevich called for a dialogue with the Belarusian authorities, noting that the European Union's policy of isolation had yielded no results. “I believe that any expansion of contacts between Belarus and Europe, be it at the level of governments, NGOs or people, draws Belarus closer to Europe,” he stressed.
“We are for a political or economic dialogue with the European Union that must involve firm conditions of Belarus' democratization. We welcome the government's moves to broaden cooperation with the European Union but we will never bargain with the government as far as it concerns political, economic and other freedoms,” he said.

Closer ties with the European Union will not harm Belarus' relations with Russia, Mr. Milinkevich stressed. “We must have open, sincere and mutually beneficial relations with Russia,” he said.
According to the official results of the 2006 presidential election, Mr. Milinkevich came second with 6.1 percent of the vote. The poll was condemned by the West as undemocratic amid multiple reports of ballot rigging and pressure on opposition candidates.