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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is a close ally of Vladimir Putin and supports his war in Ukraine, is standing for election for the seventh time.
ADVERTISEMENTBelarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is running for a seventh term in office, and no one can imagine him losing.The last time in 2020, the rigged election sparked mass protests for months.Back then, the electoral commission in Minsk had awarded Lukashenko 80.1% of the vote, with a voter turnout of 84.38% but none of the tens of thousands of protesters believed the figures.Then Lukashenko had the mass protests violently suppressed – with Russia’s help. Then, former English teacher and interpreter Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya stepped into the presidential race – after her husband Syarhei had run as a presidential candidate and been arrested.Now, Tsikhanouskaya, along with an estimated 600,000 Belarusians, has left the country as exiles. However, Belarusians living abroad are unable to vote, meaning they won’t have a voice in the election.According to the human rights organisation Viasna, the Belarusian regime is currently holding around 1,300 political prisoners. To prevent protests like those in the summer of 2020, Lukashenko allegedly moved this year’s election from August to wintry January. He has also barred all opposition candidates from running against him.The European Commission has already called the current elections a farce. EU Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Anitta Hipper said: “This is an exercise that is totally undemocratic. These elections are a total sham. It is not an election if you already know who is going to win.” “We have also continued to raise awareness of all political prisoners and those unjustly detained. We are calling on the authorities to release all people facing repression.”And in another sign of their determination to win, reports emerged of the internet being jammed by the government.Ahead of the elections, Euronews spoke with three exiled Belarusian opposition figures.’None of it means anything anymore’Lesia Pcholka is a photography artist and archivist who splits her time between Berlin and Bielsk Podlaski. On the eve of the elections, she celebrated the release of her photo book, which juxtaposes images of the 2020 protests in Belarus with those of the 2019/2020 protests in Hong Kong, drawing parallels between the two movements. Speaking about the upcoming elections in her home country, she said: “[The elections] don’t stir up anything in me. After the protests in 2020, I went through numerous court cases—fear, loss, pain. I no longer have expectations or hopes.” “The outcome of these elections is predetermined. Nothing will happen, and nothing will change. Elections, protests—none of it means anything anymore because democratic institutions no longer function,” Pcholka added.”To me, it’s just a date, and I decided to spend it with friends at the presentation of my book.”ADVERTISEMENTA book that preserves photos from the 2020 protests in Belarus while offering a new perspective by comparing them to the protests in Hong Kong. I’m glad I managed to close this chapter and create a visual record. And I’m also glad it was published before this new election cycle—maybe the date is only significant in that sense,” she said.When asked whether anything might change — or even worsen — after the elections, Pcholka wrote: “Elections in totalitarian and authoritarian countries aren’t really elections, they’re a ritual, repeated over and over to show that nothing changes. This will be the seventh presidential election.””Seventh. Can you imagine? And nothing has ever changed. Belarus has never experienced democracy, so why would anything change now? Will it get a little worse or just the usual level of worse,” she asked.’Lukashenko is holding his people hostage’Andrei Gnyot, a Belarusian journalist, activist, and advertising director, was imprisoned and under house arrest in Serbia for more than a year. He was arrested on charges of alleged tax evasion and faced possible extradition to Belarus.ADVERTISEMENTGnyot was deeply involved in the 2020 protests. His team believes the Lukashenko regime aims to arrest everyone who participated in those demonstrations.In November, after completing his sentence, he was able to leave Serbia. The activist lived briefly in Berlin, but after his residency permit expired, he was denied political asylum in Germany and was forced to leave. He is now awaiting a decision from the Polish authorities.Gnyot prefers the elections not be referred to as such. “All participants are enablers who openly support Lukashenko’s regime. How can you even call it an election when they’re all the same?”What he feels most is anger: “Anger, because some people still believe in the existence of elections in Belarus. Bitterness, because Lukashenko tries to pass off the lack of choice as an election.”ADVERTISEMENT”And an unwillingness to discuss it, because it’s impossible to talk about something that doesn’t exist.”Gnyot warns that the situation in Belarus could become even worse “if Europe and the civilised world allow themselves to be deceived into thinking this is an election or a demonstration of the people’s will, which it is not.””Lukashenko hasn’t just seized power, he’s holding his people hostage,” he stated.”More than a thousand political prisoners live under hellish conditions. Tens of thousands are being tortured, and millions of Belarusians live in fear: afraid to speak, afraid to make phone calls, afraid even to think out loud.”ADVERTISEMENTGnyot warned against recognising the election as legitimate: “If the world acknowledges these so-called elections, it will only strengthen the dictatorship, intensify repression within the country, and expand Lukashenko’s influence abroad. We must not allow the dictator to continue mocking Europe and democratic values—because Belarusians are paying a terrible price for it.”‘A mockery of the country and the people’This is the first election since the mass protests in 2020, where thousands of protesters were detained and arrested. Belarusian artist Uladzimir Hramovich, who now lives and works in Berlin, was one of them. After his release, he left and now lives in exile in Berlin. Naturally, the elections triggered an emotional reaction, he told Euronews.”Of course, this election has unsettled me and triggered something. After the last election in 2020, our lives completely changed. I had to leave the country and was imprisoned,” Hramovich recalled.ADVERTISEMENT”We thought we’d be able to return in a few months or half a year. Now, it’s been almost four years of living in exile.””These elections, with their facade and the complete absence of a hint of competition, feel even more like a mockery of the country and the people who chose a different path five years ago. This is a repeated exploitation of their sacrifices,” he concluded.
