Hanna Kanapazkaja

Hanna Kanapazkaja, 2015

Hanna Anatoleuna Kanapazkaja ( Belarusian Ганна Анатолеўна Канапацкая , Russian Анна Анатольевна Канопацкая Anna Anatolevna Kanopazkaja *  29. October 1976 in Minsk , Byelorussian SSR ) is a Belarusian lawyer and politician (independent until 2019 United Civic Party of Belarus ).

She ran as an independent candidate in the 2020 presidential election and was previously a member of the House of Representatives for the VBP from 2016 to 2019 .

Life

Hanna Kanapazkaja was born in Minsk in 1976 as the daughter of a bread factory and poultry farm owner and a housewife. She studied law at the Belarusian State University and later worked as a lawyer and entrepreneur. She speaks fluent German and English.

She has a son and a daughter who are studying abroad due to Kanapazkaja's opposition activities.

Political career

Kanapazkaja claims to have been active in the opposition to President Aljaksandr Lukashenka since 1995 and was temporarily detained for her activities. In the parliamentary elections in 2016 she ran for the United Citizens' Party of Belarus (VBP) and was the only candidate of her party to win a seat. Along with Alena Anissim, she was the first representative of the opposition in parliament since 2004. During the election campaign, she voted for the building, among other things used by new schools. As a member of parliament, she saw her most important task as conveying the importance and work of parliament to the population, solving problems at the local level, and was involved, among other things, in drafting bills for investment and privatization, which the President rejected.

In the run-up to the 2019 parliamentary elections , a VBP party congress rejected a renewed candidacy by a majority of Kanapazkajas after, among other things, she was accused of not having sufficiently addressed the alleged electoral fraud on the part of the government as a member of parliament. As a result of further internal party disputes after the election, in which the VBP did not win a seat, Kanapazkaja resigned from the party.

In March 2020, Kanapazkaja tried to become the opposition candidate in the 2020 presidential election , but was not allowed to run in the primaries due to irregularities in her application documents. She had not received the required number of support signatures, and three signatures on her list are said to be from people who were born in 2020.

In May 2020, Kanapazkaja announced that she would run as an independent candidate in the presidential election. She justified her candidacy with the population's loss of confidence in the government and sought “deep structural reforms” in the political, economic and social spheres. She presented herself as the only candidate who was pro-European and not dependent on Russia . She also described herself and incumbent Aljaksandr Lukashenka as the only serious candidates in the election.

During the election campaign, she repeatedly stood out for her strong criticism of the other opposition candidates. For example, she said that as a former manager of Gazprom, because of his dependence on Russia , Wiktar Babaryka could no more become President of Belarus than a pedophile could work in kindergarten. Other opposition politicians therefore accused her of running for Lukashenka as a "spoilsport" of the opposition and called on her to withdraw her candidacy.

In the election, Kanapazkaja received around 1.68 percent of the vote and ended up well behind Aljaksandr Lukashenka and Svyatlana Zichanouskaja . Like the three other opposition candidates, Kanapazkaja appealed against the result to the election commission, which was rejected.

Political positions

One of their most important concerns is the independence of Belarus from Russia . For example, she is calling for the Russian-Belarusian Union Treaty to be terminated , which she believes is unconstitutional , and advocating a strengthening of the Belarusian language over the Russian language . She also strives to turn away from Soviet traditions and calls for the reintroduction of the public holiday on March 25 , the day of independence of the Belarusian People's Republic from Soviet Russia in 1918.

She describes herself as a pro-European politician.

In connection with her work as a lawyer, she criticized the restrictions on the rule of law in Belarus and the persecution of members of the opposition.

It calls for democratic reforms and advocates changes in the economic and social areas, in particular for the expansion of social security systems.

criticism

Kanapazkaja's activities in the opposition regularly give rise to speculation about her relationship with the Lukashenka government. Some international media rated their entry into the House of Representatives in 2016 as a sign that Lukashenka wanted to signal readiness for reform in order to relax relations with the EU . For this purpose she was "allowed" into parliament and served as an "opposition by [Lukashenka's] grace".

It is also controversial within the opposition movement. While on the one hand she was accused of being instrumentalized as a “fig leaf” to improve Lukashenka's international reputation, others saw her entry into parliament as an opportunity to establish at least a small degree of pluralism in parliament. With regard to the criticism, Kanapazkaja said that although her entry into parliament was not a sign that democracy had broken out, on the other hand, her work as a member of parliament was an opportunity that she wanted to use.

Before the 2020 presidential election , also against the background of her harsh criticism of other opposition candidates, there were renewed allegations that she was acting as the “spoilsport” of the opposition. It was also questioned why three of the most promising candidates - Wiktar Babaryka , Waleryj Zepkala and Sjarhej Zichanouski - were not allowed to vote or were imprisoned, while Kanapazkaja was allowed to run. She herself attributed this to her many years of service in the opposition, and pointed out that she had to accept such repression before.

Trivia

A month before the 2020 presidential election , Kanapazkaja claimed on Facebook that she discussed what clothes to wear when she was inaugurated at a meeting with EU and UK ambassadors .

Web links

Commons : Hanna Kanapazkaja  - collection of images

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Канапацкая Ганна Анатольеўна. In: vybory2016.by. Retrieved August 16, 2020 (Belarusian).  
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} КАНОПАЦКАЯ Анна Анатольевна. In: vybary2020.by. Retrieved August 16, 2020 (Russian).  
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Taking On Belarus' President Lukashenka: The Final Four Candidates. In: currenttime.tv. July 15, 2020, accessed on August 16, 2020 .  
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Irina Romalijskaja: Зарегистрированные кандидаты в президенты Беларуси рассказали Нассказали Насироящему Времен .уд, времен. In: currenttime.tv. July 15, 2020, accessed August 16, 2020 (Russian).  
5. ^ Opposition Figures Win Seats In Belarusian Parliament. In: rferl.org. Radio Free Europe , September 11, 2016, accessed on August 16, 2020 .  
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} Opposition members make a leap into the Belarusian parliament. In: sueddeutsche.de. Süddeutsche Zeitung , September 12, 2016, accessed on August 17, 2020 .  
7. ↑ ^{a b c d} Opposition leaps into parliament. In: spiegel.de. Der Spiegel , September 12, 2016, accessed on August 17, 2020 .  
8. ↑ ^{a b} Olga Dryndova: Belarus: The experiment with democracy. In: mdr.de. Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk , November 18, 2019, accessed on August 17, 2020 .  
9. ↑ ^{a b c} Simone Brunner: Cleaning the latches against the regime in Belarus. In: derstandard.de. Der Standard , January 20, 2018, accessed August 17, 2020 .  
10. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Simone Brunner: The quota opposition. In: zeit.de. Die Zeit , January 30, 2018, accessed on August 17, 2020 .  
11. ↑ ^{a b} Yan Auseyushkin: Belarus: the dictator orders controlled pluralism. In: libmod.de. Zentrum Liberale Moderne , November 14, 2019, accessed on August 17, 2020 .  
12. ↑ Ганна Канапацкая заявіла, што прыпыняе сяброўства ў АГП. In: svaboda.org. Radio Free Europe , September 29, 2019, accessed August 16, 2020 .  
13. ↑ ^{a b} Former MP Hanna Kanapatskaya to run for presidency. In: belsat.eu. May 14, 2020, accessed on August 16, 2020 .  
14. ↑ Канопацкая не прошла. В оппозиционных праймериз будут участвовать 5 кандидатов. In: belsat.eu. March 4, 2020, accessed August 16, 2020 (Russian).  
15. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Marina Charewitsch: Канопацкая: В этой президентской кампании участвуют только два серьезных политика - я и Лукашенко. In: tut.by. July 13, 2020, accessed August 16, 2020 (Russian).  
16. ↑ Результаты голосования. In: vybary2020.by. Retrieved August 16, 2020 (Russian).  
17. ↑ ^{a b} ЦИК огласил окончательные итоги выборов. За Лукашенко проголосовало 80.1%, за Тихановскую - 10.1%. In: tut.by. August 14, 2020, accessed August 17, 2020 (Russian).