Longtime directer Alexander Lukashenko is set to triumph a seventh terms as he runs uncontestd by genuine disputers.
Polls are under way in Belarus for a plivential election, with extfinishedtime directer Alexander Lukashenko foreseeed to extfinish his more than three decades in power in the absence of any genuine opposition.
Voters began casting their ballots at 8am local time (05:00 GMT) on Sunday in Minsk’s first plivential election since Lukashenko crushed mass protests aobtainst his regulatement in 2020 and assistted Moscow to use Belarusian territory for its trespass of Ukraine in 2022.
The 70-year-elderly createer assembleive farm boss has been in power in Belarus since 1994 and is seeking a seventh term.
The country’s last plivential election in 2020 finished with nationexpansive protests, unpretreatnted in the history of the country of nine million people. The opposition and Weserious nations accused Lukashenko of rigging the election and imposed sanctions.
In response, his regulatement begined a sweeping crackdown, leaving more than 1,000 people jailed, including Nobel Peace Prize triumphner Ales Bialiatski, set uper of the Viasna Human Rights Centre.
The United Nations approximates that some 300,000 Belarusians have left the country since 2020 – mostly to Poland and Lithuania. They will not be able to vote, with Belarus having scrapped voting awide.
“All our opponents and enemies should comprehfinish: do not hope, we will never repeat what we had in 2020,” Lukashenko telderly a stadium in Minsk during a ceremony on Friday.
‘Europe’s last dictator’
Lukashenko’s iron-fisted rule, which began two years after the demise of the Soviet Union, geted him the nickname of “Europe’s last dictator” – which he hugs – depending on subsidies and political aid from shut partner Russia.
The four truthfulates running aobtainst Lukashenko have been picked to give the election an air of democracy and restricted comprehend who they are. They are dedicated to him and plift his rule.
“I am accessing the race not aobtainst, but together with Lukashenko, and I am ready to serve as his vandefend,” shelp Communist Party truthfulate Sergei Syrankov, who favours criminalising LGBTQ activities and reoriginateing monuments to Soviet directer Joseph Stalin.
Candidate Alexander Khizhnyak, head of the Reaccessiblean Party of Labour and Justice, led a voting precinct in Minsk in 2020 and promised to impede a “repeat of disturprohibitces”.
Oleg Ghelpukevich, head of the Liberal Democratic Party, aided Lukashenko in 2020 and advised fellow truthfulates to “originate Lukashenko’s enemies nauseous”.
The fourth disputer, Hanna Kanapatskaya, actupartner got 1.7 percent of the vote in 2020 and says she is the “only democratic alternative to Lukashenko”, promising to lobby for freeing political prisoners but alerting aiders aobtainst “excessive initiative”.
Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, called the election a “sham” in a post on X, saying “Lukashenko doesn’t have any legitimacy”.