Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko won a fifth term as president by a landslide on Sunday, and warned the opposition against protests that could derail the lifting of Western sanctions imposed over rights abuse allegations.
With long-standing opposition figures barred from standing in the election and state media giving Lukashenko uniformly positive coverage, the veteran leader ran against three virtual unknowns — only one of whom campaigned.
Lukashenko took 83.49 percent of the vote, Central Election Commission chief Lidiya Yermoshina said, with his nearest rival Tatiana Korotkevich mustering just 4.42 percent of the vote.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) yesterday said the election fell short of democratic standards.
“It is clear that Belarus still has a long way to go towards fulfilling its democratic commitments,” Kent Hasted, the head of the OSCE’s observer mission for the election, said in a statement.
“The recent release of political prisoners and a welcoming approach to observers were positive developments. However, the hope that this gave us for broader electoral progress was largely unfulfilled,” he said.
He expressed particular disappointment over shortcomings during the counting and tabulation of votes.
However, Lukashenko on Sunday said Belarus had fulfilled all commitments for free and fair elections.
The EU has said it could lift its sanctions on Belarus, including those on Lukashenko, after the vote, barring any last-minute crackdown.
The lifting of restrictions would be a boost for Belarus’s economy, which has been battered by a currency crisis in Russia, its main ally and key trading partner. It could also pave the way for increased foreign investment.
EU foreign ministers were meeting in In Luxembourg yesterday and among the items on the agenda was lifting the Belarussian sanctions, with a decision to be taken before Oct. 31, when the measures expire.
“As far as we could observe from Berlin, there has not been as much repression around the elections as previously,” German Minister of Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier said as he arrived for the meeting.
Steinmeier said the vote had brought few surprises, but added that Belarus was changing, pointing to the “liberation of political prisoners” before the elections.
EU diplomats had said that Brussels was ready to reconsider sanctions against Lukashenko’s regime provided the polls passed off without major protests and in an “acceptable climate.”
Europe’s longest-serving leader had earlier mocked Korotkevich, saying she could not handle ruling a country because she is a woman.
“The president here has masses of powers, from security to the economy, that so far a person in a skirt cannot carry out,” he said.
Lukashenko had the lowest result in the capital, Minsk, where 65.58 percent of voters backed him, while in a striking figure, 20.6 percent in Minsk voted against all candidates, the most popular option for those who opposed the long-serving leader.
Lukashenko is believed to be grooming his son Nikolai, known as Kolya, as his successor. The 11-year-old, who regularly accompanies the president at official engagements, cast his father’s ballot for him at a polling station near their home in Minsk.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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