Elections to the Coordination Council: Reconfiguration and Renewal of Political Organizations

Developers and organizers of the elections to the Coordination Council (CC) successfully conducted a test of the online voting system. Accordingly, the organization had the opportunity to become a platform for coordinating the interests of political organizations. In a depoliticized society, the CC could have the most significant impact on the democratic agenda. Meanwhile, the voting system is seen as a tool for legitimization and feedback for the democratic movement in case of another wave of politicization of society.

In the CC elections, neither the organizers, developers, commentators, nor political organizations predicted high turnout. Nevertheless, the elections highlighted the most active groups with political ambitions in the democratic movement. During the campaign, the feedback of political organizations with their audiences improved. Additionally, the democratic forces tested mobilization capabilities in a depoliticized society.

During the voting in Belarus, there were issues with accessing VPN services, which reduced the number of participants within the country. For the safety of people, organizers restricted access to the voting site: participation from Belarus could only be taken by those using a VPN.

Ex-security personnel from BYPOL were involved in another scandal related to the use of the “Peramoga” plan chat-bot for personal purposes – for campaign distribution in favor of Alexander Azarov’s lists. As a result, the “Right and Justice” block was removed from the election. The head of BYPOL was left without access to the chat-bot.

The democratic forces suffered further reputational losses. This negatively affected the level of trust in political organizations and demotivated a portion of the active members—these people ignored the elections.

Tsikhanouskaya maintained a distance regarding the electoral campaign. The leader of democratic Belarus emphasized the significant role of the CC in the architecture of democratic forces, but did not call on supporters to participate in the voting.

Thus, based on the results of the elections to the CC, the democratic forces will adjust their approaches and strategies in communication with Western capitals based on feedback from sympathizers.