Four presidential hopefuls put on ballot

The central election commission on Thursday granted registration as presidential candidates to four out of the six contenders, including Syarhey Haydukevich, Tatsyana Karatkevich, Alyaksandr Lukashenka and Mikalay Ulakhovich.

Unemployed school teacher Zhanna Ramanowskaya and economist Viktar Tsyareshchanka were denied registration as candidates in the October presidential election because they failed to submit the required number of ballot-access signatures.

According to the central election commission, 139,877 valid signatures were submitted for Syarhey Haydukevich, 61, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party; 105,278 for Tatsyana Karatkevich, 38, an activist of the “Tell the Truth!” movement; 1,573,278 for Alyaksandr Lukashenka, 61, the incumbent president who has been holding the presidency since the summer of 1994; 149,819 for Mikalay Ulakhovich, 64, leader of the pro-government Belarusian Patriotic Party and a pro-Russian association of “Cossacks”; 6,699 for Mr. Tsyareshchanka; and 689 for Ms. Ramanowskaya.

The commission`s meeting was attended by all the presidential hopefuls but Messrs. Lukashenka and Tsyareshchanka. The Belarusian leader was represented by the head of his nomination group, Mikhail Orda.