MINSK, 27 September (BelTA) – The process of registering initiative groups to nominate candidates for presidency was super liberal, Secretary of the Central Election Commission Nikolai Lozovik stated as he commented on the results of the registration of initiative groups on 27 September. In its session on 27 September the Central Election Commission of Belarus registered 17 initiative groups. The CEC registered even those groups which made fundamental mistakes, Nikolai Lozovik said. In his words, the registration was transparent and democratic. The typical mistakes were the inclusion of the underaged and those who did not give their consent to be the members of the initiative groups. Nikolai Lozovik warned the potential candidates against repeating the same mistakes during the canvassing campaign. The nominee will be denied registration if over 15% of the signatures is not validated. When asked on a possible number of presidential candidates, Nikolai Lozovik restrained from forecasting. He only provided the data of the previous election campaigns. During the presidential election in 2006 16 initiative groups applied for registration, eight were registered and only four of them were able to collect 100,000 signatures. In 2001 there were 26 nominees for the presidency, 22 of them were registered and only four collected over 100,000 signatures. According to Nikolai Lozovik, the initiative groups will start collecting signatures on 30 September.

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