Main Task Is to Develop Strategy of Victory

The issue of the round table for nominating a single presidential candidate from the democratic forces was discussed on Wednesday at a meeting of the UDF Presidium.

Members of the Presidium approved of the work carried out at the round table on the review of conditions of the 2010-2011 presidential campaign and the development of tentative commitments on nomination of a single presidential candidate from the democratic forces of Belarus.

The UDF Presidium believes that the main task of the democratic forces in preparation for the presidential campaign should be formulation of the electoral strategy of victory.

As the vice chairman of the United Civil Party Leu Marholin noted, "the issue about a single candidate had to be solved as far back as a year ago".

"We need a strategy of victory now. And it should be worked out openly, involving as many people as possible", said Leu Marholin. The politician added that one should not pay attention to the "pseudo-democratic processes that take place around the presidential campaign", as well as to "people who are able only to raise a dust".

For this purpose, the UDF Presidium decided "to support the initiative of the round table on holding a series of public discussions on the elements of a strategy of victory with the assistance of politicians, representatives of the expert community, and the media".

The conditions of work of the independent media in advance of the presidential campaign were also discussed at the meeting. The Presidium supported the initiative of the National Committee of the UDF to organise a round table discussion on the situation of the independent media in Belarus.

According to the chairman of the National Committee Anatol Lyabiedzka, safeguarding of independent information flows is an important element of the electoral strategy of democratic forces.

"It is impossible to hold a convincing, all the more so a winning campaign without the support of the media. Information is a conscious choice. And if Belarusian citizens had a conscious choice, we would live in another country. Today we are observing disturbing trends that the authorities, seeing the importance of independent media, begin to limit them. Therefore, we must analyse the situation, make a forecast of its development, and work out an action plan for conservation during the election campaign of at least those media that exist now", said the politician to the correspondent of the news portal www.UDF.BY. According to Anatol Lyabiedzka, in the current situation politicians cannot do without the mass media.