Authoritarian Belarus will hold national elections on Sunday for the first time since the fraudulent presidential elections in the summer of 2020 and the mass protests that followed. Presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who was driven into exile by ruler Alexander Lukashenko, called for a boycott of the country’s parliamentary and local elections. Lukashenko, for his part, announced his candidacy for the 2025 presidential elections.
“I call on Belarusians and the international community to categorically reject this hoax,” Tikhanovskaya wrote on the X platform (formerly Twitter) on Sunday. In addition to the 110 MPs, around 12,000 representatives of local parliaments will be re-elected in Sunday’s vote.
Tikhanovskaya calls for a boycott
In her video speech, delivered in English, Tikhanovskaya sharply criticized the vote. The so-called election campaign does not in any way comply with democratic principles. Opposition parties and independent media were silenced. Opposition candidates are not allowed to participate in the elections. “Many are being held as political prisoners.”
In addition, half a million voters were expelled from the country and thus deprived of their right to vote, Tikhanovskaya added. She asked the international community not to recognize the vote as legitimate. On Thursday in Vienna, Tikhanovkaya also called on parliamentarians from OSCE countries not to recognize the elections.
Vote before the polling stations open
The elections in Belarus are considered unfree and manipulated. According to official information, 41.71 percent of voters in Belarus had cast their votes before polling stations opened in the morning. Postal voting has for years been a popular tool for long-time ruler Lukashenko’s power apparatus to achieve desired results without any means of verification. The opposition internet platform ‘Serkalo’ reported on Friday how students and employees in the public sector and state-owned companies were forced to throw their ballots in the ballot box early and under the control of superiors.
Elections ‘neither free nor fair’
The elections “are neither free nor fair,” the Austrian Foreign Ministry ruled on Sunday. Not surprisingly, international election observers were excluded. “We will continue to work for a free, independent and prosperous Belarus,” the country said in a statement.
According to observers, Lukashenko mainly wants to show that he is in full control after the protests three and a half years ago. Lukashenko was correspondingly confident. When casting his vote, the head of state announced that he would run again for the next presidential elections in 2025.
Lukashenko has governed Belarus in an authoritarian manner since 1994. The 2020 elections, when he was declared the winner, were followed by months of demonstrations in the country. The opposition declared Tikhanovskaya the actual winner of the election, but Lukashenko suppressed the protests in a bloody manner. More than 35,000 people were arrested at the time. The EU did not recognize Lukashenko’s election victory. Lukashenko is considered completely dependent on Russia and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.
Source: Krone
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