Polling stations opened in Belarus on Sunday for a presidential election in which long-time leader Alexander Lukashenko — — .
More than four years after the last election, opposition members viewed as posing any real threat have either fled abroad or are in prison.
What we know about the election
Lukashenko is standing against four candidates, three of whom are outwardly loyal to him and represent pro-government parties.
The fourth challenger, Hanna Kanapatskaya, has voiced cautious opposition to some of Lukashenko’s policies, touting herself as the “only democratic alternative to Lukashenko,” while also warning supporters against “excessive initiative.”
Kanapatskaya has said she recognizes Lukashenko as the winner of the 2020 contest — in which she garnered 1.7% of the vote — denounced by outside observers as fraudulent.
‘A senseless farce’
Opposition leader-in-exile Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who left Belarus under government pressure after challenging for the presidency in 2020, described Sunday’s election as “a senseless farce, a Lukashenko ritual.”
Human rights activists criticize the fact that more than 1,200 people are in after mass protests that followed the last election.
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, tweeted that Lukashenko had no legitimacy and was seeking to “reappoint himself in yet another sham election.”
Since 2020, when he allowed Belarus to be used as a , Lukashenko has become politically and economically reliant on Moscow.
Some analysts have suggested the 70-year-old is, who has joined his father on many official engagements, as a successor.
What can we expect this time?
Some 6.9 million people are eligible to vote in the country of more than 9 million, which is the last in Europe to retain the death penalty.
Polling stations close at 8 p.m. local time (1700 GMT/UTC).
In 2020, the electoral commission awarded Lukashenko 80.1% of the vote — with 84.38% voter turnout.
That triggered mass protests across the country, which Lukashenko violently suppressed — with help from the Kremlin. The United Nations estimates that some 300,000 people have left Belarus since then.
According to official figures, 41.81% of eligible voters had already voted before the actual election day. Critics see early voting as a tool used by the authorities in Belarus to manipulate voter turnout and results.
rc/nm (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)
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