TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Voting began Sunday in tightly controlled Belarus. Parliamentary and local elections It will cement the steel rule of the country's authoritarian leader, despite calls for a boycott from the opposition, who dismissed the vote as a “pointless travesty”.
president Alexander LukashenkoMr. Belarus, who has ruled Belarus with a strong hand for nearly 30 years and announced on Sunday that he will run in next year's presidential election, will use the vote to weaken Belarus's government and make the country of 9.5 million people “destabilized.” He has accused Western countries of trying to “increase the number of countries in the world.” people.
Most candidates belong to four officially registered political parties: Belaya Rus, Communist Party, Liberal Democratic Party, and Labor Justice Party. All of these parties support Lukashenko's policies. About a dozen other political parties were also denied registration last year.
After challenging Lukashenko in the 2020 presidential election, Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who is in exile in neighboring Lithuania, called on voters to boycott the election.
“There is no one on the ballot to propose real change because the regime only allows convenient puppets to participate,” Tsikhanouskaya said in a video statement. “We call on you to boycott this senseless farce and ignore this election without a choice.”
Sunday's vote will be the first in Belarus since the controversial 2020 vote that gave Lukashenko a sixth term in office and sparked an unprecedented wave of mass demonstrations.
protests It swept the country for months, sending hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets. More than 35,000 people were arrested. Thousands of people were beaten while in police custody, and hundreds of independent media outlets and nongovernmental organizations were shut down and outlawed.
Lukashenko is counting on: Subsidies and political support from Russia, his main ally, to survive the protests. He authorized the Russian government to use Belarusian territory to send troops to Ukraine in February 2022.
Elections will be held under the following circumstances: ruthless oppression Regarding opposing opinions. More than 1,400 political prisoners remain in prison, including opposition leaders and prominent human rights defender Ales Bialiatsky, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.
Opposition parties say early voting, which began on Tuesday, left ballot boxes unsecured for five days, creating a breeding ground for vote manipulation.
More than 40% of the country's eligible voters cast their ballots in early voting from Tuesday to Saturday, election officials said Sunday. According to the Central Election Commission of Belarus, the turnout by 9 a.m. Sunday, one hour after voting officially began, was 43.64%.
The Viasna Center for Human Rights said students, soldiers, teachers, and other civil servants were forced to participate in early voting.
“The authorities are using all means possible to ensure the necessary results, from broadcasting propaganda on television to forcing voters to vote early,” Viasna representative Pavel Saperka said. “Detentions, arrests and searches are occurring during voting.”
In a meeting with Belarusian law enforcement officials on Tuesday, Lukashenko claimed without evidence that Western countries were mulling plans to stage a coup in the country or seize power by force. He ordered police to step up armed patrols across Belarus, declaring them “the most important element in ensuring law and order.”
After the vote, Belarus will establish a new state institution, the 1,200-seat All-Belarusian People's Assembly, which will include government officials, local representatives, trade unionists, and pro-government activists. It will have a wide range of powers, including the ability to consider constitutional amendments and appoint election officials and judges.
Lukashenko was thought several years ago to be considering whether to lead a new organization after leaving office, but he has apparently changed his mind and announced on Sunday that he will run in next year's presidential election.
“Tell (the opposition) that I am running. And the more difficult the situation, the more actively they will sabotage our society… The greater the burden to give, the sooner I intend to run for election,” the strongman leader told reporters while casting his vote. The capital of Belarus, according to state media.
For the first time, the curtains at polling booths were removed and voters were prohibited from taking photos of their ballots. During the 2020 election, activists encouraged voters to photograph their ballots to prevent authorities from manipulating votes in Lukashenko's favor.
Belarusian state television showed footage of an interior ministry drill in which police detained suspected criminals who were filming ballots and others who formed artificial lines outside polling stations.
First time in Belarus Rejected Observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe will be invited to monitor the election. Belarus is a member of the OSCE, the top transatlantic security and rights group, and its observers are the only ones to have internationally monitored elections in Belarus for decades.
Since 1995, Belarus has not had a single election recognized as free and fair by the OSCE.
The OSCE said the decision not to allow OSCE observers deprived the country of a “comprehensive assessment by an international body.”
“The human rights situation in Belarus continues to deteriorate, and those who express dissent or defend the human rights of others are subject to investigation, persecution and, frequently, prosecution,” it said in a statement.
Officials also noted that authorities were not trying to pretend the vote was democratic.
Artyom Shreibman, a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Russia and Eurasia Center, said the election was an important time for the government to “test its systems in the wake of mass protests and the severe shock of the previous presidential election, and the “It's an opportunity to see if it works,” he said. “Parliament will become barren after the opposition and all other voices are banned from campaigning. It is important for the authorities to erase any memory of the protests.”
