Parties are preparing for the elections, civil society mobilises the population on environmental issues

Most opposition parties, except the centre-rightists, aim to nominate own candidates for the upcoming elections. Civil society further applied efforts to defend local communities’ interests before investors and authorities.

Political parties are attempting to repeat civil society’s fund-raising successes. However, Belarusian society appears to be not prepared to allocate significant funds to finance activities of the opposition. Nevertheless, the Belarusian Popular Front managed to raise some funds through crowdfunding to cover partially its debt for the premises rent.

Opposition parties held further negotiations on the nomination of presidential candidates: apparently, several candidates would be nominated. That said, yet none of the candidates voiced plans to call for street protests in Minsk after the elections, i.e. to organize street protests at the “Maidan”.

Despite counter-efforts of the local authorities, local activists continued to organize protests in the regions. For instance, the Brest district executive committee denied registration to an initiative group for holding a local referendum on banning the construction of a battery plant. Nevertheless, activists are likely to continue their attempts to mobilize the population against the construction.

Overall, several parties are likely to nominate their presidential candidates, however, ultimately, only some 3-4 candidates from the opposition are likely to participate in the elections.