Belarus President Alexander G. Lukashenko won the seventh consecutive election in a contest on Sunday that his deported opponents dismissed as a shame, the sole purpose of which is former It was to strengthen its independent grip on the Soviet Republic. , Russia’s closest ally.
“Do not use the word of election to describe this sarcasm after the country’s former presidential vote in 2020,” said Sivetlana Tikhanoskaya. “This is an excellent performance of Lukashenko to stay in power at any cost.”
A survey Of the voters who leave the polling In the locations released by the State media on Sunday evening, Mr Lukashenko received 87.6 percent of the vote, which is more than 81 percent, which he claimed to win in 2020. The exit pool is controlled by the state like all aspects of the elections in Belarus and is usually reflected in the final results.
Unlike 2020, when Ms Tikhanovskia was allowed to flee against Mr Lukashenko and declared himself the winner, Sunday’s election was a strict control and a strong matter, in which only the loyalty of the president was exhibited. – None Mr. Lukashenko has really expressed any desire to defeat, who has ruled Belarus with an iron fist since 1994.
Out of the country since 2020, Ms Tikhanovskia did not participate in Sunday’s elections and instead she was in Warsaw, she led the protest against Mr Lukashenko, who made fun of her efforts and It has been claimed that President Trump has eliminated financial support for the opposition movement in exile. He was appearing last week citing an executive order, which had practically withheld all foreign aid for a 90 -day diagnostic period.
According to the exit poll, two candidates got less than two percent of the vote against Mr Lukashenko. One fourth, the leader of the Communist Party, Sergey Sirankov seized 2.7 %.
Last week in television -based electoral debates, which the president did not join, Mr Sirankov said he “wanted to be honest”, acknowledged: “Everyone in this studio knows that Alexander Lukashenko is about to win.”
The result was an important result, with Mr. Lukashenko’s all -prominent opponents, either in prison or in exile and in Belarus’s media outlets, which was an important result. But this is one that is still important to the president, who is desperate to show his country – and Russian President Vladimir V Putin.
In a statement on Sunday, Kaja Kalis, the head of the European Union’s foreign policy, has termed the elections a “shame” that is “neither free, nor fair.”
But foreign electoral observers, who have been created by right -wing political parties such as alternatives to Germany and other Russian groups, welcomed the vote as a victory for democracy and criticized the elections by the European Parliament and other institutions. Condemned. “He says there is a dictatorship here, but I don’t think – the truth is quite different in Belarus,” he told the state news agency of Billers’ state news agency. “People talk calmly and easily. He added that this is not the case in Europe at all.
This election was certainly calm, so much that Mr Lukashenko barely bothered to campaign, saying he was very busy to participate in the debate with four state -elected rival candidates or hold meetings. However, in the approval of traditional politics, last week, it signed a decree that increased pension from February 1 to 10 %.
A Recent Public Opinion Survey in Belarus by Chatam HouseA British research group, which indicated mass dissatisfaction with the economy, causing severe damage to Russia’s February 2022 has imposed economic sanctions on the country to support Ukraine. Only 11 % of the respondents were certainly satisfied with the economy, while only 32 % said they supported Russia’s attack.
According to the survey, Mr Lukashenko’s main appeal is his “favorable image”, which is “trying to prevent Belarus from being involved in a military conflict after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
Russian troops used Belarus as a staging ground for abortion in early 2022, but Mr. Lukashenko resisted Moscow’s pressure to join the war against Ukraine Send the army of Belarus.
After casting his vote in the Belarus capital of Minsk on Sunday, Mr Lukashenko predicted that the controversy would “have a resolution this year”, adding that President Trump is “not stupid, not stupid” And recognize. Referring to Belarus and Russia, “You are around around around around around around around around around around around around around around around around. There, around around around around around around around around around around, around around around, around around around, around around there. There, around around around around around around, around around around, around around, they said about the war. Will see the light at the end of the tunnel.
In Sunday’s vote, his so -called rivals avoided criticizing Mr Lukashenko, who had no open disagreement and accepted his mankar as “the last dictator of Europe”, at which time the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice An insult was made in 2005.
Being happy with the West, especially neighboring Poland, and Moscow, by being happy, Mr Lukashenko has issued a desire to improve cold relations with the Western capitals in recent months.
The process, which is widely seen as an attempt to relieve Western sanctions, continued on Friday when Mr Lukashenko pardoned 15 more prisoners, including five people, “extremist crimes. “The charges were jailed, a blanket was used to describe the president’s criticism. The names of the issuers were not made public.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, In a social media post On Sunday, indicated that they included a citizen of the United States, who identified him as Anastasia Novar, “Who was taken under the Biden!” He said in the post. Mr Rubio said that Ms Nawafar was “unilaterally released” with President Trump’s leadership.
At a news conference in Minsk on Sunday, Mr Lukashenko denied that he was leaving the prisoners in favor of the year in favor of abroad, saying, “I don’t kick about the West.” He said that his decision to liberate some people was “based on the principle of humanity.”
None of the most prominent opponents of Mr Lukashenko, including Ms Tikhanoskia’s husband Sergey, have not been released. The United States and the European Union have lost sanctions.
In the sign that authorities are hoping for more sympathy by the new Trump administration, Belarus’ state media reportedly reported last week that after the opening in Washington, the State Department was to A statement was removed from its website Sunday’s election was criticized by the outgoing Secretary of State, Antony J. Blackon.
Mr Blackon’s deleted statement condemned Belarus’s elections as a sarcastic, “The United States is one of many of our European allies, which estimates that elections cannot be credible in an environment where Censorship does not exist everywhere and free media. “
