Lukashenko Steals Presidential Election in Belarus

Electoral turn out was officially recorded at 92.6%. From the total number of ballots cast, the incumbent secured 82.6%. His nearest rival garnered 6.0%. Even without knowing the details, this looks like a rigged election. Sunday’s fraudulent election in Belarus merely proves that the White House is right when it calls Alexander Lukashenko “Europe's last dictator.”

The OSCE, which is the primary observer of elections in Europe, was quite restrained in its assessment. The election in Belarus, “did not meet the required international standards for free and fair elections.” Cyril Svodboda, the Foreign Minister of the nearby Czech Republic was more precise: “The elections were unfair and undemocratic. We support the opposition.” At the same time, the observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States (the former Soviet Union) claimed the election was open and transparent; Russian President Putin told them so.

Alexander Lukashenko runs Belarus (the former Soviet Republic just east of Poland, north of Ukraine and west of Russia, with its capital at Minsk) the way Godfather Brezhnev ran the Soviet Union. His mustache reminds one of Josef Stalin’s, as do his policies. There is no member of the opposition in the Belarus parliament. During the election campaign, foreign observers were denied visas, foreign journalists couldn’t get in either, and opposition members were beaten by the secret police – the KGB, which still has the audacity to use the old acronym. In fact, one third of the opposition candidates' campaign management got arrested.

This is not to say that Comrade Lukashenko doesn’t have the genuine support of some. His command economy still pays pensions and the price of goods hasn’t soared (there just aren’t any on the store shelves). This means the old folks and rural population love him. If the people like a command economy, then they should democratically opt for one; that is not what happened yesterday. Instead, it was perpetuated against them by a man who once said he thought Hitler “deserved credit for forming a strong state.”

Some of the people of Belarus haven’t given up yet. About 6,000 turned up to protest in October Square in Minsk. They gathered under the banned red and white flag that President Lukshenko outlawed when he took over the presidency a decade ago. They remind one of the Hungarians in 1956 or the Czechs in 1968 – waiting for help from the west that isn’t coming.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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