Belarusian President Lukashenko tells BBC people are choosing jail and exile

I’ve covered many elections.

I’ve seen prime ministers and presidents gather at polling stations, cast their votes, and then answer some questions from reporters.

But I have never seen anything like the one at polling station 478 in Minsk.

Alexander Lukashenko, the long-time leader of Belarus who was once called “Europe’s last dictator,” came to vote. Then, while Belarusians were still voting, candidate Lukashenko gave a four-and-a-half-hour press conference live on state television.

It was an opportunity to ask him questions about the controversial vote, which his critics have decried as “a sham”.

“What dirty questions have you prepared for me?” he asked. “Just like you always do.”

“Good morning,” I replied.

“Good morning, Steve.”

“How can you call it a democratic election when your main opponents are either in prison or in exile?” I asked.

“Some people are in prison, some people are in exile. But you are here!” Lukashenko said.

“Everyone has the right to choose. This is democracy. Some choose to go to jail, some choose to live in exile. We have never forced anyone to leave the country.”

Indeed, it was the authorities’ brutal crackdown on protesters following the 2020 presidential election that led to Alexander Lukashenko’s most staunch opponents being either imprisoned or forced into political exile. Personal choice does not factor into this.

“You recently said ‘we can’t silence people’ (keep people silent),” I reminded him.

“But your rivals are not just excluded from the vote. Some of them are already in jail. There are currently more than 1,200 political prisoners in Belarus. Isn’t it time to open the cells and release them? Like Maria Kole People like Snikova, Sergey Tikhanovsky…”

“You keep telling me about Maria. Oh my god,” Lukashenko sighed.

“Okay, let me answer your question…Prisons are for people who open their mouths and break the law. Don’t there be prisons in the UK and the US?”

“In any country, if you break the law, you have to face the consequences,” he continued. “The law is strict, but that’s the law. I didn’t invent it. You need to follow it.”

“You need to obey the law,” I interjected. “But these are the people who went to jail for criticizing you.”

“Ignorance of the law does not absolve you of your responsibility before the law.”

Although prominent opposition figures are not allowed to run, Alexander Lukashenko’s name is not the only one on the ballot. There are four other candidates. But they come across more like disruptors than true challengers.

“We talked to some other candidates,” I told Lukashenko. “One of them, the leader of the Communist Party, openly supports you. The other is full of praise for you. It’s a strange election, isn’t it, to have such an opponent…”

“Steve, this is a new experience for you!” he responded to laughter and applause from local reporters in the room.

“Indeed,” I said. “I’ve never seen an election like this before.”

“The Communist Party’s policy based on justice is the same policy we are pursuing,” Lukashenko said. “Then why did they vote against me?”

EU foreign policy chief Kaya Karas described the presidential election in Belarus as a “blatant affront to democracy”.

Alexander Lukashenko doesn’t seem to care.

“I swear to you,” he told me, “I don’t care whether you recognize our election or not. The most important thing to me is that the people of Belarus recognize it.”