MINSK (Reuters) – Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said on Sunday that some of his political opponents had “decided” to go to prison as he cast his vote in an election intended to extend his 31-year rule.
While Belarusians voted, Lukashenko competed with media from around the world at a press conference that lasted more than four hours and 20 minutes.
Asked how the elections could be free and fair considering that all key opposition figures are in prison or have fled the country, the veteran leader replied: “Some chose prison, others chose ‘exile’ , as you say. We didn’t do that.” throw anyone out of the country.
He said no one is prevented from speaking out in Belarus, but prison is “for people who open their mouths too wide to say it clearly, for those who have broken the law.”
Both the United States and the European Union described the election as a sham, given the suppression of political opponents and the ban on independent media.
“This is a blatant affront to democracy,” said EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on the eve of the vote.
Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told Reuters this week that Lukashenko was planning his re-election as part of a “ritual for dictators.” On Sunday there were demonstrations against him in Warsaw and other Eastern European cities.
Lukashenko dismissed the criticism as meaningless and said he did not care whether the West recognized the election or not.
The EU and the US both said they did not recognize him as the legitimate leader of Belarus after he used his security forces to crush mass protests after the last election in 2020, when Western governments backed Tsikhanouskaya’s claim that he had falsified the results, to deceive them of victory.
Tens of thousands of people were arrested. Human rights group Viasna, banned as an “extremist” organization, says there are still around 1,250 political prisoners.
Lukashenko released more than 250 people on humanitarian grounds last year, but he denied that was a signal to the West to try to restore ties.
“I don’t care at all about the West,” he said, adding that Belarus was ready to talk to the EU but not “bow to you or crawl on its knees.”
He said leading dissident Maria Kalesnikava was guilty of “violating the regime” but that she was in good health and that he had personally intervened last year to allow her to visit her father. Other prominent prisoners include human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, who is serving a 10-year prison sentence on smuggling charges, which he denies.
“In every state you have to take responsibility when you break the law. The law is strict, but it is the law,” Lukashenko said.
Putin ally
Lukashenko, who took his small dog with him to a polling station in Minsk, is running against four other candidates, none of whom have mounted a serious challenge. But while there is no doubt about the outcome, he faces difficult decisions in his new five-year term, which will be his seventh since 1994.
The war in Ukraine has tied him closer than ever to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Lukashenko offered his country as a launching pad for the 2022 invasion and later agreed to let Moscow station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
Lukashenko said he sees “light at the end of the tunnel” as Moscow and Kiev prepare for possible peace talks where he said they would have to negotiate a compromise.
When asked whether this would be his last election, the 70-year-old former Soviet agricultural boss declined to give a direct answer. He said he “won’t die” and had no specific successor in mind.
“When the time comes, we will think about it,” he said.
