Small Business Leader Shumchanka Accepts Proposal to Run for President in 2011

Anatol Shumchanka, chairman of the Perspektyva business association, said that he did not mind his running in Belarus’ presidential election in 2011 while speaking at the association’s conference in Minsk on Monday.

Delegates who proposed that Mr. Shumchanka run for President insisted that he would be a worthy candidate from “hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs.”

“I would like to take part in the presidential election,” Mr. Shumchanka said. “Every soldier wants to become a general. If I continue to do well defending the interests of entrepreneurs, there is no reason I should not run in the election.”

Mr. Shumchanka noted that he would be 36 in 2011 and the constitution of Belarus allows citizens who have reached the age of 35 to run for President. //BelaPAN