422 initiative groups for the nomination of candidates to deputies of the House of Representatives have been registered in Belarus, Secretary of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Belarus Nikolai Lozovik told BelTA.
The nomination of candidates through signatures collection is one of the three ways to participate in the elections. One can also run for the Lower Chamber of the Belarusian Parliament if one is nominated by their co-workers or a political party. The signatures (a total of 1,000) are collected by an initiative group consisting of at least 10 people.
According to the final estimates, 454 applications have been submitted to the district election commissions to register initiative groups representing those candidates who want to run for the seats through the collection of signatures. 23 applicants were denied registration, 8 applications were withdrawn voluntarily. One application was not considered because it missed the deadline, Nikolai Lozovik said.
310 initiative groups registered by the district election commissions represent independent candidates. The other candidates that were nominated through the collection of signatures are members of various political parties, including Agrarian Party (1 initiative group), Belarusian Social Democratic (Gramada) (16), Communist Party of Belarus (19), United Civil Party (27), Belarusian Popular Front (21), Belarusian Party of Communists (18), Republican Party of Labour and Equity (1).