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Alexander Lukashenko expected to remain as president of Belarus
Belarus election: Alexander Lukashenko expected to win
(35 minutes later)
Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus who is expected to hold his post as the country goes to the polls, has said he would be concerned support in his leadership was waning if he received less than 80% of the vote.
Exit polls in Belarus showed the president, Alexander Lukashenko, winning a fifth term by a landslide.
Lukashenko, who was been president since 1994, faced no serious competition in the election campaign, which was boycotted by the opposition. Even before polls opened in the former Soviet republic, the central election commission announced that 36% of the 7 million registered voters had cast their ballots during five days of early voting.
Lukashenko’s re-election five years ago led to mass protests and the imprisonment of leading opposition figures, but support for his 20-year-old regime has risen since he cast himself as a guarantor of stability in the face of economic crisis and a pro-Russia separatist conflict in neighbouring Ukraine.
By 4pm local time on Sunday the official turnout was nearly 75%, even though many polling stations in the capital and nearby villages were nearly empty. Opposition leaders denounced the early voting as an ideal instrument for falsifying the result. International observers also raised concerns.
Exit polls on Sunday showed him winning 80-84% of the vote, slightly more than the 80% he got in the 2010 elections, with turnout at 81% two hours before polls closed, according to the central elections commission.
“It is very unusual for us to find that a country has an election on so many days,” said James Walsh, head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s parliamentary assembly. “Most democracies have a challenge in getting its citizens ... to come out and vote.”
The west has long ostracised Lukashenko’s Belarus – described in 2005 by then US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice as “Europe’s last dictatorship” – over its human rights record and clampdown on political dissent. It has imposed economic sanctions on some Belarusian officials and companies.
Walsh said the observers have questions about the security of the ballot boxes, a concern also raised by the opposition.
Nevertheless, Lukashenko’s criticism of Russia’s annexation of the Crimea peninsula in Ukraine last year, his hosting of Ukraine peace talks and his pardoning of six opposition leaders in August suggest he is seeking to improve his image in the west, observers say.
“For five nights, no one was guarding the ballot boxes and the authorities could do anything they liked with them,” said Anatoly Lebedko, the leader of the opposition United Civil Party.
“We have carried out everything the west wanted on the eve of the elections. If there is a desire in the west to improve our relations, nobody and nothing can prevent that,” Lukashenko said as he cast his vote. “The ball is now firmly in the west’s court.”
Lukashenko said it would be a bad sign if he received fewer votes than during the last election in 2010, when he won 79.65 % of the vote. “That would mean that people were beginning to move away and were dissatisfied with some of my policies,” he said after voting in Minsk, the Belarusian capital. “Therefore for me it is very important: If Lukashenko wins, I retain what was there in the past election.”
Relations with Moscow, meanwhile, have shown signs of strain. In September, Vladimir Putin approved a plan to build an airbase in Belarus, but early this month Lukashenko said his country had no need for such a base, appearing to bow to public protests on the eve of the election.
Lukashenko, 61, appeared at the polling station with his 11-year-old son, Nikolai, who was wearing the same suit and tie as his father. An independent research institute put Lukashenko’s support at about 46% in September, while the official state sociology institute tallied his support at 76 %.
The EU will lift its sanctions on Belarus, including those on Lukashenko, for four months after Sunday’s vote, barring any last-minute crackdown, diplomatic sources said on Friday.
Lukashenko faced three nominal rivals during the election: the leaders of two pro-government parties, Sergei Gaidukevich and Nikolai Ulakhovich, and little- known opposition activist Tatyana Korotkevich. Prominent opposition figures were either barred from running or decided against trying to get on the ballot for an election they considered a farce. During his 21 years of rule, Lukashenko has cracked down on dissent while cultivating an image of strong leadership that guarantees order and stability.
Previous elections in Belarus were considered unfair by western observers and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which is monitoring Sunday’s vote, said in September the ballot represented a “pivotal moment” for Belarus to demonstrate a willingness to hold free and fair elections.
“Oh, life has become harder, but Lukashenko promises stability and peace,” said 68-year-old Tamara Krylovich after voting in Minsk. “Look at what democracy brought in Ukraine – war and poverty.”
The OSCE will present a report on their election monitoring on Monday, after which Brussels will release a formal statement, an EU spokesman said.
Lukashenko has largely preserved the state-controlled Soviet type of economy, albeit with the help of cheap Russian gas and western loans. The unreformed economy may be sputtering, but it still puts bread on the tables of pensioners and workers at unprofitable state factories.
But Anton Gurevich, a 41-year-old automobile factory worker, said it was time for a change. “I have lived half of my life with Lukashenko, but life has not gotten better,” he said. “After all, the leadership should change, there should be changes.”
Lukashenko said he was prepared to introduce economic reforms if the Belarusian people were prepared for the difficulties they would bring. “If you give me carte blanche for any destruction and any revolutionary transformations, if that is what you want, then for God’s sake we will do it,” he said. “The issue is not me, the issue is society.”
Lukashenko allowed opposition candidates to run in past presidential elections, although none of the votes were recognised in the west as free or fair. In 2010, most of the candidates who opposed him were arrested soon after the polls closed. Police also detained hundreds of opposition supporters while violently dispersing an election night protest that drew tens of thousands onto the streets.
One of the former candidates, Nikolai Statkevich, spent nearly five years in prison until Lukashenko unexpectedly pardoned him in August along with all five other remaining political prisoners. Their release was seen as an effort to improve relations with the west, which imposed sanctions on Belarus in response to the crackdown on dissent.
On Friday, an EUofficial said sanctions on Belarus may be suspended.
The opposition has called on its supporters to join a protest after polls close on Sunday night. The protest is expected to be relatively small and will be allowed to proceed peacefully. Police did not interfere with an opposition demonstration on Saturday involving about 1,000 protesters.
