Belarussians voted yesterday in parliamentary elections that could determine whether Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime warms to the West or moves deeper into Russia’s orbit.
Voting opened in the former Soviet republic at 8am, giving the country of 10 million people wedged between its longtime ally Russia and the EU 12 hours to cast ballots.
At polling station No. 446, a large brick building close to the historical center of the capital Minsk, an elderly couple showed up to vote well in advance.
“We are accustomed to the Soviet regime, we are disciplined,” 82-year-old Nikolai Zelenkevitch said as an opposition observer squabbled with an official about the right to view an electoral list.
Critics fear the poll will be blighted by massive fraud, especially because around a third of the electorate took advantage of a law allowing them to vote in advance last week without independent monitoring.
Lukashenko was once dubbed “Europe’s last dictator” by Washington, but has been courting the West in the past few months amid signs of wavering loyalty to Russia.
The wily autocrat has ruled Belarus with an iron fist for the past 14 years, but has voiced hopes the vote will be recognized by the EU and the US, which are closely monitoring Belarus’ democratic credentials.
However the Belarussian opposition has already slammed the poll as undemocratic and plans a rally as soon as polling ends to protest what it fears will be widespread voting fraud by allies of the 54-year-old president.
Western election observers say Belarussian authorities have made “real efforts” to increase fairness, citing the greater time allotted them on television.
But the Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said Lukashenko’s critics were being ignored in state-controlled media, adding there had been “no improvement” from previous elections.
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