Belarusian Autocrat Lukashenko Eyes Seventh Mandate

Belarusian autocrat Lukashenko eyes seventh mandate

Minsk, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Jan, 2025) Belarusians vote on Sunday in a presidential election to extend Alexander Lukashenko's 30-year stranglehold on power in which he has crushed all opposition and helped his ally Russia invade Ukraine.

The moustachioed 70-year-old is running for a seventh mandate as head of the former Soviet republic, which borders the European Union, Ukraine and Russia, in what the opposition has already branded a "sham".

The European Parliament has called on the international community not to recognise the result.

The previous vote in 2020 was followed by an extensive crackdown on unprecedented mass protests.

In an interview with AFP ahead of the election, opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who ran against Lukashenko in 2020, said Belarusians were "really frightened by four years of repression".

- Kremlin satellite -

Since 1994, Lukashenko has crushed several waves of protest against his rule. The last and most serious began in August 2020 and lasted for months.

Tens of thousands of Belarusians took to the streets.

Supported by Russia's Vladimir Putin, a shaken Lukashenko went on to consolidate his power with arrests, long prison sentences against opponents, journalists, activists and ordinary protesters.

The United Nations estimates that more than 300,000 Belarusians out of a population of nine million fled the country for political reasons, mainly to Poland.

To punish this repression, Western powers have imposed heavy sanctions against Belarus, leading Lukashenko to strengthen his alliance with the Kremlin and drop his long-standing balancing act between Moscow and the West.

In February 2022, Lukashenko allowed Russia to use his country as a launch point for the invasion of Ukraine.

Russia then sent tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus in 2023 -- a threat against Ukraine, but also Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, all NATO members bordering Belarus.

- 'People have to be ready' -

Lukashenko, a colourful character who likes to be seen in military uniforms, behind the wheel of a tractor or with a weapon in hand, portrays himself as a source of stability against the chaos of the war in Ukraine.

His press service last month published a book called "Our President" which portrayed a loving and responsible leader. The book has a photo of him carrying an assault rifle during the 2020 protests.

The bulky thick-whiskered leader, a former collective farm director, also likes to tour factories and farms.

He speaks with pride about his country's largely state-controlled economy, reminiscent of the Soviet era.

During a recent public appearance, he said he was not particularly interested in election debates.

"It's not a time to debate," he said.

Four low-profile candidates have been selected to run against him and offer no real opposition.

In a speech in a church in January, he spoke of the need to prepare the "next generation" to govern Belarus.

One of his three sons, Nikolai, has long been seen as a potential successor.

Human rights organisations estimate that there are more than 1,000 political prisoners in Belarus, often detained without access to lawyers or the possibility of communicating with their loved ones.

Tikhanovskaya, whose husband Sergei Tikhanovsky is in prison and has not been allowed to communicate with her since March 2023, has called on Belarusians not to protest during the vote and to wait for the right time.

"I really don't want people to sacrifice their freedom at the moment for nothing, you know, in vain. I ask people to save themselves for a really proper moment.

"It will come for sure, and people have to be ready."