Belarus’ strong-willed leader, Aleksandr Lukashenko, cruises to re-election

Europe’s longest-serving leader, President Aleksandr G. Lukoshenko, cruised to victory in a seventh election on Sunday in a contest that was dismissed as a sham, whose intentions were the thirty republics, Russia’s closest allies.

“Don’t use the term Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the opposition leader who fled Belarus after the country’s 2020 presidential election and a brutal crackdown on fraud across the country. . “It is a performance by Lukashenko to cling to power at all costs.”

A polling station poll of voters released by the media late Sunday showed Mr. Lukashenko with 87.6 percent of the vote, more than the 81 percent he claimed to have won. in 2020. Exit polls are controlled by the state like all aspects of elections in Belarus and generally reflect the final results.

Unlike in 2020, when Ms. Tikhanovskay was allowed to run against Mr. Lukashenko and she announced herself, Sunday’s election was well-controlled and soft, which only showed the candidate loyal to the president. not available Mr Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus with an iron fist since 1994, has shown every desire to win.

The four competing candidates, according to exit polls, won less than two percent of the vote each, except for the leader of the Communist Party, Sergei Syrinkov, who took 2.7 percent.

With Mr. Lukashenko’s most prominent opponents in jail or prison and the exiled and Belarusian media cheering for the authorities, the result is a conclusion. -forethought. But there is only one who is still a presidential professional, who is eager to show his country – and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia – that the chaos of 2020 has influenced 2020.

In a statement on Sunday, European policy chief Kaja Kallas described the election as a “sham” that was “non-existent”, or impartial. “

But pollsters from the polls, drawn from right-leaning political parties such as the Alternative for Germany and other pro-Russian groups, presented the vote as a victory for democracy and condemned the European Parliament and other institutions. “They say there is a dictatorship here, but I don’t think so – the situation in Belarus is completely different,” Krastyo Vrachev, an analyst who represents a nationalist party from Bulgaria, told the Belarusian news agency . “People are calm and talk to each other with dignity, in Europe it’s not like that at all,” he added.

The election is so peaceful that Mr. Lukashenko has not interfered with the campaign, saying he is too busy to participate in a debate with a four-choice candidate or hold a rally. In a piece of traditional politics, however, last week he signed an order raising the pen by 10 percent starting Feb. 1.

A recent survey of public opinion in Belarus by Chatham House, a British research group, indicated people’s dissatisfaction with the economy, which has been persecuted by the economy. The economic sanctions imposed on the country for its support of February 20222 in Ukraine. Only 11 percent of respondents were very satisfied with the economy, and only 32 percent said they supported Russia’s invasion.

Mr. Lukashenko’s appeal, according to the study, is his “favorable image” as “a politician trying to prevent Belarus from participating in a military conflict after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”

The Russian army has used Belarus as a staging ground for Kyiv in early 2022, but Mr Lukashenko has resisted pressure from Moscow to send Belarusian troops to fight the war. to Ukraine.

After throwing on Sunday in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, Mr. Lukashenko estimated that “there is some kind of solution this year,” it is not a duty of President Trump “but not stupid” and admits “Can not push “We are all around us,” said Belarus and Russia. “We will see light at the end of the tunnel this year,” he said of the war.

His electoral rivals avoided criticizing Mr. Lukashenko, who did not bother and embraced his broker as “Europe’s last dictator” in 2005. then to the United States Secretary of State.

Although it was fun to mock the west, and show his loyalty to Moscow, Mr. Lukashenko in the last few months signed to improve the poor relations through the western captains by releasing the Western prisoners.

This process, which was aimed at getting relief from Western sanctions, continued on Friday to disrupt 15 other prisoners, including five people imprisoned for “violent crimes”, and there were old blankets to say the criticism of the president. The names of those who posted were not made public.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a social media post on Sunday, indicated that he found an American citizen whom he called SASTASIA NUHFER “who was taken from Anastasia Nuhfer” who was taken from Joe Biden! Mr. Rubio said he was “unlawfully fired” because of President Trump’s leadership.

None of Mr. Lukashenko’s most prominent opponents, including Ms. Tikhanovskaya, Sergei, was released. The United States and the European Union have left sanctions in place.

In a sign that authorities expect a deeper crackdown from the Trump administration, Belarusian media last week removed from its Washington website Department of State, there was a statement criticizing the election on Sunday, made by the outgoing Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.

Mr. Blinken’s statement condemned the Belarusian election as a coup: