Belarusians come to vote this Sunday in elections with barely impact outside their borders, not only because of the magnitude of other issues, but also because of the small alternatives between candidates, among which a president comes above all, Alexander Lukashenko, whose triumph nobody doubts.
This year’s presidentials still drag the sequels of those of 2020 whose results, even without much of the international recognition, They finished a stroke with any internal liberalization conato and further reinforced ties with Russia And, with it, the dependence of his great neighbor.
Now, after three years being the objective of international sanctions for their alleged involvement in the Ukraine War, Lukashenko Belarusian seeks to reconcile with the Westknowing that the arrival of Donald Trump to the White House can accelerate a possible agreement between kyiv and Moscow.
That is why in campaign Lukashenko has adopted a less raw tone To which he usually appears to refer to his opponents, he has released prisoners arrested during the protests of 2020 and has even fixed in his electoral program challenges such as “tending bridges” with the opposition, more “dialogue” and less “confrontation.”
However, both the opposition, mainly the abroad -which already asked to boycott the electoral process -and Western governments Come with skepticism this new electoral appointmentscheduled for summer but advanced, according to some, by Lukashenko’s desire to reset his image abroad as soon as possible and because winter would back down possible mass mobilizations.
The candidates
Alexander Lukashenko is one of the Five candidates That they will finally appear this Sunday on the ballots, after two others retired from the contest shortly after presenting their credentials, also asking for the vote for the current president due to the “difficult” challenges before him the country.
In addition to Lukashenko, in power since 1994 Already who polls give 80% of the votes, the head of the Democratic Liberal Party participates, Oleg Gaidukevichalso present in the lists of western sanctions; Alexander Jizhniak, of the work and justice party; and the Communist leader Sergei Sirankov.
The independent deputy Anna Kanopatskaya She is the only woman and the only one of the candidates who has defended a reform of the current authoritarian model and the release of imprisoned opponents.
The worst sanctions of history
The voters who go to the polls will do so in a very complex socio -political context and with a country under a regime of sanctions as never before in their history. Before the already restrictions imposed by its assumption Support to the Russia of Vladimir Puitin during the warBelarus already dragged many others by the Repression of protests against the questioned triumph of Lukashenko in 2020.
Those August 2020 elections resulted in one of the worst repressive waves of the Belarusan authorities in recent years and led to a crisis never seen before with the West. The sanctions ended decades of commercial, cultural and humanitarian relations that had maintained the always difficult balance with that considered as the “Last dictatorship of Europe.”
In that context, the crisis deepened even more when the Belarusian government ordered the forced landing of an Irish airline plane Ryanair in Minsk to stop an opponent, receiving in response more sanctions from the European Union, with whom borders shares , to which Lukashenko would have sent hundreds of illegal migrants in retaliation.
International discredit
Throughout the week, they have resonated the voices from some capitals questioning the validity of an election in which more than 17% of the Belarusians have already been able to vote in advance these days, not those who reside abroad, where URNAS have not been enabled for security reasons.
Amid Complaints of Human Rights And the disdain of the European Union and the United States, the only one who has wanted Lukashenko luck has been his main partner, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
These days The word that has been repeated most from the West to refer to these elections is that of “farce”. One of the latest statements issued by the administration of Joe Biden was precisely to question results that were already foreseen “long before the votes are cast.”
After Lukashenko will criticize the presence of western observers In the elections for their alleged partiality in the process, finally the bellruse authorities have confirmed the presence of more than 400 attendees from about 40 countriesamong them the National Electoral Council (CNE) of Venezuela.
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