MINSK – Alexander Lukashenko will rule Belarus for another five years after winning the presidential race by a landslide, although international observers report mass falsifications.
Belarusian Central Election Committee’s tentative estimate points to 83.49 percent of the vote in favor of Alexander Lukashenko, followed by 7.1 percent ballots cast “against all.” Tatsiana Karatkevich, the first female presidential candidate in Belarusian history, member of the opposition, received 4.42 percent of the vote; Sergei Gaidukevich, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, 3.32 percent, and Nikolai Ulakhovich, leader of the Patriotic Party, 1.67 percent. The turnout was 87.2 percent.
In Minsk, 20.6 percent of the electorate came out with a scratch vote whereas Lukashenko collected 65.58 percent. Observers say the percentage is grossly overstated. Sergei Kaliakin, “For Fair Elections” campaign coordinator, sees no reason to trust the election results: “The regime does not want to improve the situation, so they have ignored the request of international organizations that they make the electoral process more democratic and the vote-counting procedures transparent. We note breaches of the Constitution of Belarus and election laws, total usage of the administrative resource at all election stages. As a result of discrimination in the course of forming the election commissions, no representatives of the democratic parties became their members.”
Svetlana Yakshina, United Civil Party observer at a polling station, also reports breaches of the election laws. She says her estimates and those in the election commission records (“protocols”) tallied during the early voting, but on the last day she discovered an extra 213 voters’ names on commission record: “Our turnout data pointed to 16.4 percent and that of the election commission, to 30 percent. I walked up the stairs to the commission’s reception room where the chairman, the secretary, and an observer, a schoolteacher, were seated. I asked them about the figures. They instantly realized what I was driving at. They lowered their eyes and the chairman told me, ‘Svetlana Valerievna, the early voting is over.’ Walking out of the room, I was hysterical. I cried through the night and next morning. Similar situations were at other polling stations. At some votes were added on the last day, at others throughout the early voting.”
Opposition in Belarus is urging the international community to refuse to recognize the results of the presidential election. After the polling stations closed, former political prisoner Nikolai Statkevich, opposition activists Vladimir Nekliaev and Anatoly Lebedko called a press conference and declared they were launching a campaign to return power to the people. “We do not recognize the show staged by the Belarusian regime as a legitimate presidential election. We never will and we have ample evidence to do just that,” declared Vladimir Nekliaev.
Nikolai Statkevich noted that the first action of the “Power for the People” campaign was the march with the national flag that had taken place prior to the vote: “The purpose of our campaign is to return power to the people. We will call on other democratic organizations, movements, and ordinary citizens to join us.”
Lukashenko’s rival presidential candidates Sergei Gaidukevich and Nikolai Ulakhovich congratulated the incumbent head of state on victory even before the election polls closed. Tatsiana Karatkevich promised a press conference after the election results were announced.
Under the Constitution of Belarus, the inauguration of Alexander Lukashenko will take place two months after the election date. The Presidential Administration will determine the inauguration date.
