Lukashenko Extends Three-Decade Rule in Belarus

Belarusian autocrat Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994, won a seventh consecutive term in office, in an election condemned by the European Union and the exiled opposition.
With opponents in prison or exile, the 70-year-old leader appeared to have won 87.6 percent of the vote, according to an official exit poll.
Lukashenko has mounted a relentless crackdown on his opponents since mass protests against him in 2020. This time, the candidates who were supposed to run against him were actually campaigning in his support.
Exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya called the election a “farce,” while the EU described it as a “fraud.”
Lukashenko, however, said he did not care whether the bloc recognized the results or not.
He also said he had “no remorse” for allowing his “big brother,” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s, troops to invade Ukraine through Belarus in 2022, despite hundreds of thousands of casualties in the three-year conflict.
The election came five years after a wave of intensified repression in Belarus, during which human rights groups say more than 1,200 political prisoners are being held in the country.
Lukashenko won a higher percentage of the vote in that election than in 2020, when he received 81.04 percent.
The 2020 Belarusian election led to nationwide protests, with demonstrators accusing Lukashenko of rigging the vote.
Tens of thousands of Belarusians fled the country after the 2020 protests, when the KGB launched a wave of repression, mostly against neighboring Poland and Lithuania.
Lukashenko said his opponents were in prison or exile by choice.
“Some chose prison, others exile,” he said.
“If it’s prison, then these are the ones who opened their mouths too wide,” he added.
He also said repentance and a request for clemency were preconditions for the prisoners’ release.
In Warsaw, where many Belarusians in exile live, Tikhanovskaya called Lukashenko “a criminal who has usurped power.”
“This is just a country with the illusion of choice,” said 22-year-old student Alexandra, adding that some of her compatriots have been living in fear “for decades.”
Tikhanovskaya said in an interview this month that she wanted dissidents to be ready for the possibility of change in Belarus, but acknowledged that “the moment has not yet come.”
In a statement, the foreign ministers of the eight northern Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – welcomed “the tireless efforts of the Belarusian democratic forces led by Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.”
Tikhanovskaya’s allies in Belarus are in harsh prison conditions – often without contact with the outside world and in isolation.
Lukashenko has accused imprisoned protest leader Maria Kolesnikova – who tore up her passport during a forced deportation by the KGB in 2020 – of violating prison rules.
He said he personally ordered Kolesnikova to be “shown to the people” in November last year – when photos of her were published as the first sign of life in over a year.
Concerns about Kolesnikova’s health, who was hospitalized in prison, have been mounting for months, but Lukashenko said: “She is fine.”
Most people in the landlocked country have only distant memories of life before Lukashenko, who was 39 when he won Belarus’ first national election since independence from the Soviet Union.
In Minsk, 74-year-old pensioner Nadezhda Guzhalovskaya said she voted for Lukashenko because she had no other options.
“Maybe it’s not perfect here, we don’t have democracy,” Guzhalovskaya admitted.
But Irina Lebedeva said “thanks to our president, there is peace in this country,” echoing the government’s position that the leaders of the 2020 protests had created chaos.
The United Nations estimates that about 300,000 Belarusians have left the country since 2020, out of a population of nine million.
They will not be able to vote because Belarus has abolished overseas voting.
In the run-up to the election, Lukashenko's administration pardoned about 200 political prisoners.
But former prisoners told AFP that those released were under close surveillance by security services and unable to lead normal lives.
Known as "Europe's last dictator" - a nickname he has adopted - Lukashenko's Belarus has retained much of the traditions and infrastructure of the Soviet Union.
If he completes his term, which ends in 2030, Lukashenko will have been in power for 36 years. | BGNES