Observer says Belarussian opposition lost election as lacks unity

MOSCOW, December 21 (Itar-Tass) - Political opposition in Belarus lost
the Sunday presidential election because of a lack of unity within its
ranks, believes Vadim Gustov, the plenipotentiary representative of the
upper house of Russian parliament in the CIS parliamentary assembly.
"The opposition represented by nine candidates suffered a complete
flop because it didn't have unity in its ranks," Gustov said.
"There were nine candidates who entered the election process with
small teams of assistants, small election funds and big personal
ambitions," he said. "They were reluctant to unite on whatever platform
and if you take disunited forces, they are easy targets for a defeat."
As for the attempts to organize actions of protest upon the results of
voting, Gustov pointed to the low level of their organization and the
absence of tangible grounds for protests.
"Some people came to make noise and others came to see what was going
to happen," he said. "The method of public protests is wrong at the basic
level when the case in hand is a predominant majority of votes, not a
margin of just a couple of votes. Recall that the incumbent President
/Alexander Lukashenko/ got support of 80% voters."
CIS observers were split into teams working in different parts of
Belarus and the group of Russian observers had a headquarters in Minsk.
Members of the Russian team had meeting with members of Belarus's
Central Electoral Commission and visited the town of Zhodino where the
factory manufacturing the world-famous BELAZ heavy-duty trucks is located.
"Certainly, we made small technical remarks at the polling stations
but we didn't have any major claims against the way the electoral
procedures were organized and everyone pointed out the high level of
organization at the polling stations," Gustov said.
The most debatable issue was the number of people who used an
opportunity of early voting, he said, adding that the number of such
voters was noticeably bigger in the cities and especially at student
dormitories.
In the rural areas, a total of 10% to 12% voters voted in advance.
"We respect the choice that the citizens of the truly fraternal
country made," Sergei Mironov, the speaker of the upper house of Russian
parliament said earlier. "The Belarussians have elected their President,
and we could only wish that he himself would respect people's choice."
"If the current policies of the Belarussian leadership continue
matching the aspirations of the population and their willingness to
develop relations with Russian in all areas, then all the problems in our
relations will be untangled smoothly and in the spirit of mutual respect,"
he said.