Seventh term for Lukashenko | Geneva Tribune

The self-confessed autocrat Alexander Lukashenko was re-elected on Sunday in Belarus for five years, with 87.6% of the votes, according to an official exit poll, due to a lack of tolerated opposition in this former Soviet republic that he currently leads. an iron fist since 1994.

During his sixth term, the 70-year-old leader completely stifled any dissent after unprecedented demonstrations targeting him in 2020. The opposition in exile denounced “a farce” on Sunday in a vote without suspense.

“A prank”

The leader of the opposition Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, forced into exile and whose husband is imprisoned in the country, for her part denounced from Warsaw “a farce”, describing the leader as a “criminal” and demanding the release of all political prisoners.

The EU and human rights NGOs have also described this election as staged, with the head of European diplomacy Kaja Kallas estimating on Saturday that President Lukashenko had “no legitimacy”.

“We have a brutal democracy in Belarus,” admitted the 70-year-old president during a press conference in Minsk attended by an AFP journalist, after having voted for this election without any issues.

The leader acknowledged that people who participated in large, unprecedented protests against his power in 2020 had since been excluded from certain jobs, saying they could request a pardon if they recognized “that they were wrong”. “We will not pursue everyone, but we monitor them,” he warned, even though he has relied for three decades on the all-powerful local KGB. “We have a complete file with all their photos.”

On Sunday, only four candidates, handpicked by those in power, acted as foils.

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