I have covered several elections.
I have seen Prime Ministers and Presidents return to the polling stations, vote and then ask some questions from reporters.
But I have never seen such a scene at polling station 478 in Minsk.
Longtime Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, once called “Europe’s last dictator,” arrived to cast his vote. Then, while Belarusians were still voting, candidate Lukashenko gave a four-and-a-half-hour press conference live on state TV.
It was an opportunity to question him on the controversial vote, which his critics have described as “a sham”.
“What wicked question have you prepared for me?” he asked. “As you always do.”
“Good morning,” I replied.
“Good morning, Steve.”
“How can you call this a democratic election, when your main opponents are either in jail or in exile?” I asked.
“Some are in prison, and some in exile. But here you are!” Lukashenko said.
“Everyone has the right to choose. That’s democracy. Some choose prison, others choose exile. We’ve never expelled someone from the country. Not pulled out.”
In fact, it was the authorities’ brutal crackdown on protesters after the 2020 presidential election that led to the imprisonment or political exile of Alexander Lukashenko’s staunchest opponents. He did not like it personally.
“You recently said, ‘We shouldn’t shut people up.’ [silence people]“I reminded him.
“But your opponents have not only been kept out of the polls. Some of them have been sent to prison. There are currently over 1,200 political prisoners in Belarus. Isn’t it time to open the prison cells? And they should be released? People like Maria Kolesnikova, Sergei Tikhanovsky…”
Lukashenko sighed, “You keep talking about me about Maria. My God.”
“Well, I’ll answer your question… Prison is for people who have opened their mouths too much and who have broken the law. Don’t you have prisons in Britain and America?”
“In any country, if you break the law, you have to face the consequences,” he added. “The law is strict, but it is the law. I did not invent it. You must obey it.”
“You need to obey the law,” I interjected. “But these people are in jail for criticizing you.”
“Ignorance of the law does not absolve you of your responsibility to it.”
