Belarus’ election extends President Lukashenko’s rule, called a sham by opposition, EU

• Belarus held an orchestrated election over the weekend that the opposition and the EU rejected as a farce, extending authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko’s greater than three a long time in energy.
• Belarus’ 2020 election, which was additionally referred to as a sham by dissenters, triggered months of unprecedented protests within the nation.
• Lukashenko has been in energy since 1994 and has relied on subsidies and political help from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who additionally helped him survive the 2020 protests.

Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko prolonged his greater than three a long time in energy in an orchestrated weekend election that the opposition and the European Union rejected as a farce.

The Central Election Fee declared early Monday that Lukashenko gained the election with practically 87% of the vote after a marketing campaign by which 4 token challengers all praised his rule.

Members of the nation’s political opposition, a lot of whom are imprisoned or exiled overseas by Lukashenko’s unrelenting crackdown on dissent and free speech, referred to as the election a sham — very like the final one in 2020 that triggered months of protests that have been unprecedented within the historical past of the nation of 9 million individuals.

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Since then, greater than 65,000 individuals have been arrested and 1000’s overwhelmed, with the crackdown bringing condemnation and sanctions from the West.

The EU rejected Sunday’s vote as illegitimate and threatened new sanctions.

German International Minister Annalena Baerbock mentioned the election provided no option to voters, marking “a bitter day for all those that lengthy for freedom and democracy.”

The pinnacle of the Central Fee of the Republic of Belarus, Igor Karpenko, fifth from left, and his colleagues attend a information convention on presidential election leads to Minsk, Belarus, on Jan. 27, 2025. (AP Picture/Pavel Bednyakov)

“As an alternative of free and truthful elections and a life with out concern and arbitrariness, they expertise day by day oppression, repression and human rights violations,” she mentioned in a put up on X.

Lukashenko has been in energy since 1994 and has dominated the nation with an iron fist. He has relied on subsidies and political help from Russian President Vladimir Putin, himself in workplace for a quarter-century, a relationship that helped him survive the 2020 protests.

Lukashenko allowed Moscow to make use of the nation’s territory to invade Ukraine in 2022 and later hosted a few of Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons.

Putin referred to as Lukashenko on Monday to congratulate him on his “convincing victory.” Chinese language President Xi Jinping additionally despatched congratulations.

Some observers imagine Lukashenko feared a repeat of these mass demonstrations amid financial troubles and the preventing in Ukraine, and so scheduled the vote in January, when few would need to fill the streets once more, quite than maintain it in August.

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Main opponents have fled overseas or have been thrown in jail. Activists say the nation holds practically 1,300 political prisoners, together with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, founding father of the Viasna Human Rights Middle.

Since July, Lukashenko has pardoned greater than 250 individuals. On the identical time, authorities have sought to uproot dissent by arresting a whole bunch extra in raids concentrating on kin and buddies of political prisoners.

Opposition leader-in-exile Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who fled Belarus underneath authorities stress after difficult Lukashenko in 2020, denounced the election as a “mindless farce” and urged voters to cross off everybody listed on the poll.