English

Lyabedzka reelected chairman of United Civic Party

Anatol Lyabedzka was reelected chairman of the United Civic Party (UCP) in a secret ballot at the party’s 13th convention held in Minsk on Sunday, BelaPAN said.

Apart from Mr. Lyabedzka, Viktar Harbachow was nominated for the post, but he refused to accept his nomination, explaining that he did not have enough strength and spirit to lead the party.

Out of 112 delegates present at the meeting, 109 took part in the vote, with 89 of them voting to reelect Mr. Lyabedzka and 17 voting against his reelection.

Yaraslaw Ramanchuk and Lew Marholin were reelected deputy chairmen of the party.

Anatol Lybedzka was born in the village of Tryles near Stowbtsy, Minsk region, on June 27, 1961. He graduated from the history and French language department of the Minsk Teachers’ Training Institute in 1985 and from the law department of Belarusian State University in 1996.

Mr. Lyabedzka was a member of the Belarusian parliament. He has been chairman of the UCP since April 2000.

“I realize that I am not the leader of a political party in the sense that it is viewed in civilized countries,” he said at the Sunday convention. “I rather have to perform the functions of an anti-crisis manager. And I know better than any other the extremely complicated system o the United Civic Party.”