Belarus registers five presidential candidates

Minsk, Dec 23 The Belarusian central elections commission registered five candidates for president on Monday.

The Central Elections Commission registered the incumbent Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party of Belarus Oleg Gaidukevich, chairman of the Republican Party of Labor and Justice Alexander Khizhnyak, individual entrepreneur Anna Kanopatskaya, and first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus Sergei Syrankov.

The candidates were announced following verification of the authenticity of the signatures collected in support of the candidates and confirming their exact number.

Lukashenko's candidacy has collected more than 2.5 million signatures in support, while the remaining candidates have collected a little over 100,000 each, the commission said, Xinhua news agency reported.

Igor Karpenko, chairman of the commission, said that 93 international observers have been accredited to monitor the presidential elections, and 951 national observers have been accredited with territorial commissions.

Starting from January 1, 2025, the electoral process will move into the pre-election campaigning stage.

A signature collection to nominate presidential candidates had ended earlier this month.

Pickets to collect signatures to support persons seeking nomination as presidential candidates were held across Belarus since November 7.

Earlier, the Central Election Commission had confirmed formation of polling stations for the presidential elections in the country.

A total of 5,325 polling stations have been set up with 925 in Gomel region, 894 in Minsk region, 861 in Brest region, 701 in the city of Minsk, 683 in Mogilev region, 672 in Vitebsk region, and 589 in Grodno region.

The presidential elections will be held on January 26, 2025.

According to the law, Belarus' president is chosen through direct elections and a candidate winning more than 50 per cent of the vote will be elected. If no candidate achieves this majority, the two leading candidates will enter a second round, in which the candidate who receives a simple majority wins.

Presidential elections take place every five years. In the last election on August 9, 2020, Lukashenko was reelected president for the sixth time with 80.1 per cent of the vote.

Source: IANS