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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Picture: EVGENIA NOVOZHENINA/REUTERS
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Picture: EVGENIA NOVOZHENINA/REUTERS

Minsk — Belarusians voted on Sunday in an election that was set to hand another five years in power to President Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has bound the two leaders together more tightly than ever, with Lukashenko offering his country as a launch pad for Putin’s 2022 invasion and agreeing the following year to let Moscow place tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

It has left the 70-year-old Lukashenko, who was already shunned and sanctioned by the West before the war, even more isolated.

The US and EU said in the run-up to Sunday’s vote that it could not be free and fair because independent media were banned in Belarus and all leading opposition figures had either been jailed or forced to flee abroad.

“This is a blatant affront to democracy,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas posted on social media, describing the vote as a sham.

Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said Lukashenko was engineering his re-election as part of a “ritual for dictators”.

The former Soviet farm boss said it was “the people” who had chosen to keep him in power since 1994. He pledged at a rally on Friday to deliver justice, security and a “sea of opportunities”.

He faces four other candidates, none of whom have mounted any serious challenge or criticism. A total of 6.9-million people were registered to cast their ballots before voting ended at 5pm GMT.

Warning

Despite saying he was too busy to pay attention to the campaign, Lukashenko delivered a sweetener to voters in the final days by raising pensions by 10% from February.

At Friday’s rally, he promised there would be no repeat of 2020, when mass protests nearly swept him from power after Western governments backed the opposition’s assertion that he falsified the results and stole victory from its candidate, Tsikhanouskaya.

“We very nearly destroyed ourselves, let’s be open about this,” Lukashenko said. “And all our opponents and enemies must understand: do not hope — we will never repeat what happened in 2020.”

Lukashenko used his security apparatus to crush the demonstrations that year, arresting tens of thousands of people. Human rights group Viasna, which is banned as an “extremist” organisation, has said there are still about 1,250 political prisoners, even after he pardoned more than 250 last year.

Lukashenko denies there are any political prisoners. The authorities said those pardoned were convicted extremists who were freed on humanitarian grounds.

Political analysts said Lukashenko was hoping to use the prisoner releases to try to repair relations with the West. His efforts had become more urgent as he contemplates the likelihood of peace talks on Ukraine this year and tries to secure gains for himself and Belarus if the war comes to an end, they said.

Reuters

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