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Belarus election: Alexander Lukashenko wins fifth term with election landslide Belarus election: Alexander Lukashenko wins fifth term with election landslide
(about 11 hours later)
Alexander Lukashenko has won a fifth term as president of Belarus with a landslide victory that could see an easing of relations with the west and raise questions about his ties to Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has won a predicted landslide victory in presidential elections, giving the 61-year-old a fifth term in power, amid signs the EU may be willing to relax sanctions against him.
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. Lukashenko, once dubbed “Europe’s last dictator” by the Bush administration, has been in office since 1994 and shows little sign of releasing his grip on power in the former Soviet republic. He won 83.5% of the vote, higher than ever before, while his nearest rival Tatiana Korotkevich managed just 4.4%.
Lukashenko won 83.5% of the vote, the central election commission said laste on Sunday, slightly more than the 80% he won in the 2010 elections. Turnout was 86.75%, the commission added. The country’s long-established opposition politicians boycotted the vote and said the candidates who did stand against Lukashenko were regime-approved spoilers.
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.
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.
Related: Belarus president shows how to win five elections – without even tryingRelated: Belarus president shows how to win five elections – without even trying
“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.” A few hundred people protested in central Minsk on Sunday night, chanting “Down with Lukashenko!” The protests were much more muted than after the last election, five years ago, when thousands took to the streets and were brutally dispersed by riot police. A number of opposition candidates were subsequently jailed.
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. Vladimir Neklyayev, a candidate in the 2010 election, joined with other opposition politicians on Sunday evening to denounce the elections as a farce.
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. “This is a mockery of the people, of the citizens of Belarus. We call on the international community to brand what happened on 11 October as such, and under no circumstances to recognise the election results,” he said.
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. However, in an atmosphere of mistrust of Russia, Lukashenko’s continuing game of playing Moscow and Brussels off against each other appears to be paying dividends once again, with EU sources suggesting sanctions against Minsk could be lifted in the election’s aftermath.
The election turnout was boosted by authorities organising a huge early vote that began on Tuesday, including for soldiers and students. Over a third of the electorate of more than seven million voted ahead of Sunday’s polls. Lukashenko released six political prisoners in the run-up to the vote and hopes the EU will lift the sanctions, which must be renewed or scrapped by 31 October, later this month. Diplomatic sources said if there was no violence following the election, it would be possible for them to be lifted.
Turnout was highest in the northern Vitebsk region where 91% of voters cast their ballots, and topped 90% in two other regions. It was lowest in the capital, Minsk, at 73.33%, the commission said on its website. Vladimir Putin congratulated Lukashenko on his “convincing victory” on Monday morning, and said he hoped the two leaders would work together to continue building their “strategic partnership”. Belarus is a founding member of Putin’s Eurasian Union, an economic bloc of former Soviet states for which Moscow also has political ambitions.
The OSCE will present a report on their election monitoring on Monday, after which Brussels will release a formal statement, an EU spokesman said. Related: Belarus president brings 11-year-old son to UN
But the Belarusian leader has appeared worried by the bloodshed in Ukraine, and recently rejected plans to host a Russian airbase on Belarusian soil. He has also played the peacemaker in Ukraine, hosting several rounds of talks on ending the conflict, including receiving German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president François Hollande in February for talks with Russian and Ukrainian leaders.
Lukashenko enjoys genuine popularity in Belarus, partly ensured by a tight grip on media coverage and his ruthless tactics against opposition politicians and activists, many of which have spent time in jail. Over the past two years, the bloodshed in neighbouring Ukraine has led to renewed appreciation of the “stability” which Lukashenko heralds as one of his main achievements.
He appears to be grooming his 11-year-old son, Nikolai, as his successor. The blond child is pictured everywhere with his father, including at state events, and the pair posed for a photograph with Barack and Michelle Obama during the recent UN general assembly meeting in New York. Nikolai cast his father’s ballot for him on Sunday.