A majority of delegates to Sunday’s convention of the Belarusian Party of Communists (BPC) voted in favor of renaming the opposition organization the Belarusian Party of the United Left "Spravedlivy Mir" (Just World).
Eighty-five of the 158 delegates voted for the name proposed by BPC leader Syarhey Kalyakin who said that it would help the party recruit more members from unregistered leftist organizations.
The other four names considered at the convention were the Belarusian Party of the United Left "Spravedlivost" (Justice), the Belarusian Party of the United Left, the Belarusian Party of the United Left "Radzima" (Motherland) and the United Party of the Left. None of these names gained more than 15 votes.
The party’s leaders announced plans to "modernize" the organization last year. Speaking this past May, BPC spokesman Syarhey Vaznyak said, "The issue of renaming is only a small part of the problem. The case is that for 18 years, we've operated like the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. However, a lot has changed over these years. Communist ideology has taken on negative overtones and begun to scare young people away. That's why changing the party's name has been proposed."
