Lukashenko ‘wins’ seventh presidential term in Belarus

It’s no secret that Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko has been called ‘Europe’s last dictator’. However, even ruthless autocrats enjoy make-believe elections now and then, to legitimate themselves on paper.

This is what happened on January 26, when Lukashenko won his 7th term as President of Belarus, in an election with an outcome that surprised nobody.

According to AP News, this grants yet another five-year term to the 70-year-old autocrat, who has been the first (and so far, only) President of Belarus since 1994.

AP News informs that the Belarusian Central Election Commission declared Lukashenko’s victory as a landslide, obtaining almost 87% of the vote.

Just in case there were any doubts, Lukashenko’s closest rival obtained 3.21% of the vote, according to the official report by the Central Election Commission.

Image: anbb / Unsplash

Reuters highlights that the Belorussian presidential election has been disregarded as neither free nor fair by the United States, the European Union, and most Western nations.

According to Reuters, independent media is banned in the former Soviet nation, while political rivals to Lukashenko through the years have been jailed or forced to go to exile.

“The people of Belarus had no choice. It is a bitter day for all those who long for freedom & democracy,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock posted on X and cited by Reuters.

Meanwhile, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski sarcastically remarked that Lukashenko obtained “only” 87.6% of the vote and wondered if there were enough prison cells in Belarus for the rest.

The Belorussian autocrat has declared that he is not clinging to power and would hand it to a new generation when the time is right, per AP News.

However, AP News writes that elections in Belarus have not always gone the way Lukashenko intended. The previous presidential election, in 2020, triggered months of protests against the regime.

Reuters comments that tens of thousands of dissident Belarusians were arrested for opposing the regime and that, to date, there are still some 1,250 political prisoners.

Indeed, Belarusian political analyst Valery Karbalevich told AP News that the bad experience of the backlash of the 2020 election made the Lukashenko to have less of an election and more of a special military operation to retain power.

AP News highlights that Belarusian autocrat is generally regarded as the closest ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who himself has been governing from the Kremlin for 25 years.

Back in 2022, Lukashenko allowed Russian troops to cross Belarus to invade Ukraine from the north.

“It’s better to have a dictatorship like in Belarus than a democracy like Ukraine,” Lukashenko confessed, as quoted by AP News.

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