President Belarusi, the longest -in -the -job in Europe, has won seven consecutive wins in the Sunday election. His deported opponents dismissed his dictatorship for his dictatorship for the former Soviet Republic. , Russian closest allies.
“Do not use the word election to describe this comedy,” said Svetlana and Tihanovskaya, an opposition leader who left Belarus after the brutal suppression of the previous presidential election and national protests against the 2020 presidential election and the national protests against fraudulent elections. “It is a performing performance by Lucashenko who wants to catch power no matter what the price is paid.”
The official results, which were released early Monday, gave Luka Shenko an overwhelming victory with a 86.82%vote. This is much higher than the 81%he claimed in the 2020 election. As a result, his opponents and the Western government dismissed the incredibly high figures, which led to massive distance demonstrations.
As Lukasenko’s broad security device became silent, there is little possibility of protest this time.
Unlike 2020, when Mrs. Tihannovskaya allowed him to run for Luka Shenko and declared himself as a winner, the Sunday election was a strictly controlled and tamed election of only candidates loyal to the president. Nobody expressed the desire to defeat Luca Shenko, who has been rating Belarus since 1994.
Ms. Tihanovskaya, who has been abroad since 2020, did not participate in the Sunday election, but instead stayed in Warsaw and led the protest against Lukashenko. Trump claimed that he had suspended funding for his exile opposition movement. He appears to have mentioned an administrative order that stopped almost all external aid during the 90 -day reevaluation period last week.
According to the official results reported by the state -run telecommunications company Belta, three candidates who ran against Mr. Lukashenko earned less than 2% of the votes. Fourth, the Communist Party leader Sergey Sirankov scored a 3.2%vote.
In a TV election debate that the president did not attend last week, Mr. Sirankov said he wanted to say “honestly” and admitted: “Everyone in this studio knows that Alexandre Lukashenko will win.”
The results were all in the prison, with the prominent opponents of Lukashenko, who were in prison, and the Belarusian media, both cheering for the current president. However, it is still an important issue for the president who wants to show the fact that the confusion of 2020 has been tamed to the country and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin.
Kazakalas, CEO of the EU Foreign Policy, described the election as “fake” elections that are not “free nor fair” in a Sunday statement.
However, foreign election observers from European far -right political parties, such as Africa, the Soviet Union, and the Alternative for Germany, welcomed the voting as a democratic victory and criticized the frightening criticism of the European officials and the European Parliamentary elections. I did it. Observator Krastillo Brasub, a representative of Bulgaria’s non -mainstream nationalist parties, told Belarus, a state -owned news agency, “They say they have dictatorships, but I don’t think so. The reality of Belarus is completely different.” “People communicate calmly and easily. It is not at all in Europe. ”
The election was definitely quiet, and Luka Shenko was so busy that he could hardly care about the campaign, saying that he could not participate in discussions with the four competing candidates selected by the state or to hold a rally. Last week, however, he signed a law that raised the pension by 10% from February 1, according to the existing politics.
Recently, the British research group Chatham House surveyed the Belarusian public opinion, revealing a wide range of dissatisfaction with the economy. Economic sanctions imposed on the state for supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Only 11%of the respondents said they were satisfied with the economy, and only 32%said they supported Russia’s invasion.
According to the survey, Mr. Lukashenko’s main attraction is his ‘crushed image’ as a politician who strives to prevent Belarus from being involved in military disputes after the invasion of Ukraine in Russia.
The Russian army failed to see Belarus in early 2022, but Lukashenko resisted Moscow’s pressure to involve Belarusi in a battle with Ukraine.
Prime Minister Lukashenko voted on Sunday’s capital, Minsk, and predicted that “this year’s solution will come out,” Trump added, “It’s not a fool and fool.” “You can’t push us,” referring to Belarus and Russia. He said of the war, “We will see light at the end of the tunnel this year.”
In the Sunday vote, all of his nominal competitors did not tolerate public opposition and avoided criticism of Mr. Lukashenko, who accepted his nickname as “the last dictator of Europe.” This is an insult created by Condoliza Rice, a US Secretary of State in 2005.
While mocking the West, especially the neighboring Poland and showing the loyalty to Moscow, Lukashenko expressed his desire to improve the cold relationship with the Western capital by release of political prisoners in recent months.
Known as an effort to escape from the sanctions, this process continued on Friday, pardoning 15 additional prisoners, including five people imprisoned for ‘extremist crime’, a comprehensive term for criticism of the president. The names of those who were released were not disclosed.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a social media post on Sunday that it included an American citizen who said it was an Anastasia Nuper, “arrested under Joe Biden.” He said in the post. Rubio said, “It was released unilaterally,” thanks to President Trump’s leadership.
At a press conference held at Minsk on Sunday, Lukasenko denied that he had released prisoners to buy convictions abroad, saying, “I don’t care about the West.” He said his decision to freely make some people was “based on human principles.”
None of the most prominent opponents of Lukashenko, including Tikhanovskaya’s husband Sergei, were released. The United States and the EU have maintained sanctions.
Last week, the state -owned media reportedly reported that the State Department had deleted a statement of criticizing Sunday elections on the website since the inauguration of Washington last week with a signal that the authorities are expecting more sympathy from the new Trump administration. It was written by the Secretary of State AnTony J. Blinken.
Blinken’s deleted statement accused the Belarus election as a comedy, saying, “The United States has joined many European allies in evaluating that elections cannot be trusted in an environment where censorships are everywhere and no more independent media exists.” .
