Today is the Day of Solidarity with the victims of Belarusian regime. Right as I jot these lines, a group of Belarusian Diaspora, American politicians and activists of nonprofits has gathered near the Belarusian embassy in Washington, DC, to support democracy and protest against violations of human rights in Belarus.

Not all pop and rock stars have as many sites and fan sites as Zianon Pazniak, a Belarusian exile, a famous dissident, and a scarecrow of Belarusian television, which has turned him into a radical nationalist. Now this webpage has appeared.
Pazniak withdrew from the current presidential race but keeps on fighting for his own alternative to the elections, which, he assumes, would be falsified anyway. What he campaigns for is so called Popular Vote, the essence of which is to come to a polling station, throw some paper sheet (can be with the name of a candidate you want to vote for) into a voting box, and a real ballot should be taken with you to some people’s popular commission, which would fairly count the votes.
Neither Milinkevich nor Kazulin endorsed the proposal. On the contrary, both articulately stated that they were against it.
However, at this point another reinterpretation of the idea of Popular Vote is circulating. The bottomline is that those who would be forced to vote early should throw a blank sheet and carry the ballot out to a popular commission. But on the elections day a voter should return to a polling station with a valid ballot and throw it in. Will the opposition choose this method of staving off the electoral fraud?

In the run-up to the presidential elections, campaign-related websites spring up like mushrooms after a summer rain.
Unfortunately, majority of resources are either in Russian, or Belarusian, and do not have an English version, so the only way how non-speakers can follow the race is by reading some secondary sources.
But still here is my run-through of Belarus’ new websites having either something to do with elections or aimed at providing some general information to the citizens.
Third Term is Excess is a site where those citizens who think that Lukashenka’s third term is surplus can say nay to it;
European Radio for Belarus is still in test mode, but you can already stream it online. The playlist consists of oldies from the 80’s and 90’s, but from time to time they play forbidden Belarusian rock. News bulletins are very short, but I assume they’ll be extended once ERB goes full-mode.
Some new cartoons about Lukashenka appeared at a site, Belarusian partisan, launched by Pavel Sheremet, a famous Belarusian journalist who currently lives and works in Moscow at their public television channel, ORT.
People’s Blog is a new initiative to heat up public discussion of the elections.
Alaksandar Milinkevich’s website, to the English version of which I so infrequently contribute, has recently acquired a French section. Unluckily, it is as irregularly updated as the English one.
Alexander Kazulin’s site was discovered by me only when he mentioned it during his appearance at RFE\RL forum. The spelling of his surname in its URL is enigmatically illiterate – Kozylin. It makes me wonder whether I should spell his name thereafter.
Chopic (Enough) is a GOTV campaign group. The blue/denim colors seem to have stuck as pretty much the main tints of Belarusian aspirers after revolution. Well, again URL has a… hm… original spelling.
Sieviaryniec, one of Belarusian political prisoners, has been presented with a website by his adherents. Pavel is an ex-leader of Young Front and an initiator of a new Belarusian Christian Democratic Party, which is still in process of creation, and an English version of his site is under construction likewise.
And last but not least comes a site, which dubs itself a new multimedia portal of the Third Way community. It has got a few films you might wanna look at. However, as of now none of the videos are in English.

The launch of European Radio for Belarus has not yet been officially announced, but their website (still in test mode) has already appeared online. And as soon as its URL got leaked, discussion about its pluses and minuses immediately hit Belarusian blogs.
As far as I can see, most bloggers agree that their website is too dim, lacking information, and having some irritating features. For example, you need to register to cast a vote in an opinion poll or leave a message in a chatterbox. Music selection is also rousing some criticism – too many retro sounds from the 80’s and 90’s.
However, ERB plays some Belarusian rock including the bands banned by the regime. Taking into consideration the early phase of the station’s existence, the entire discussion may sound a bit premature. But perhaps it will help ERB come up with something worthwhile and interesting after the official launch date.

Representatives of two oppositional candidates had negotiations, and both sides expressed some satisfaction with the outcomes. For example, both agreed not to blast each other in public and to work on further ways to cooperation.
Initial Kazulin’s proposal was to unite forces and the one who fails to get registered as a presidential nominee at CEC should join the other one who gets on the ballot.
To this proposal, Milinkevich’s HQ has reacted unambiguously, “don’t let the authorities choose a more suitable candidate for them. Let us decide between ourselves who should run before the official registration.”
Taking into consideration that Milinkevich has more structures, more signatures were collected for him, he has much higher ratings, so I can paraphrase what his representatives are saying to Kazulin is – yield.
Will Kazulin agree to that? (more…)