BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

15/02/2006

Opposition Politicians in Belarus Campaign Online

Read on the blog of PoliticsOnline : Politicians in Belarus who oppose incumbent President Lukashenko have turned to the internet to get their message out.

The internet is one of the only sources of free media in the tiny country, where newspapers, radio, and television are all under state control, and the opposition candidates are taking notice.

In spite of the extraordinary digital divide within the country, opposition candidate Alyaksandr Milinkevich's website, which was launched in November 2005, currently attracts more than 1,000 visitors every day. Where only 2 percent of the population had access to the Internet in the previous presidential election in 2001, now nearly 15 percent do.

According to Radio Free Europe, Valery Karbalevich, an analyst with the Minsk-based Strategy political analysis center, says it is mainly opposition supporters and people who live in urban areas who usually visit Belarusian independent Internet sites: "The Internet is used mainly by democratically orientated people, people who [already] support the opposition's values. It is natural that these people are visiting the sites of the candidates. They are looking for their programs and so on and so forth. But to tell the truth these people do not need to be converted [to the opposition's cause]."

Polls indicate that the majority of those who support Lukashenko are pensioners and people who live in villages or small towns - a group often far removed from modern technologies. According to a 2001 Internet user survey, the vast majority of Internet users at the time were based in Minsk, under the age of 30, and had slow connections. The situation is not radically different today.

What effect will the new technology have on the presidential race? We'll have to wait until March 19 to find out.

If you want to follow the presidential election in Belarus, please visit the Belapan Website.

The candidates websites :

Source:

http://www.forum-edemo.org/article.php3?id_article=580

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