Lukashenko Set To Extend 30-year Rule In Belarus

Lukashenko set to extend 30-year rule in Belarus

Minsk, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 26th Jan, 2025) Reclusive Moscow-allied Belarus will hold a presidential election Sunday, with President Alexander Lukashenko set to cruise through to victory unchallenged for a seventh term, prolonging his three-decade authoritarian rule.

Lukashenko -- a 70-year-old former collective farm boss -- has been in power in Belarus since 1994.

It will be Minsk's first presidential vote since he suppressed mass protests against his rule in 2020 and he has since allowed Moscow to use Belarusians territory to invade Ukraine in 2022.

Belarus's last presidential election in 2020 ended with nationwide protests, with the opposition and the West saying Lukashenko rigged the vote.

The regime responded with a huge crackdown: over 1,000 people are still in prison and tens of thousands fled the country.

All of Lukashenko's political opponents are either in prison -- some held incommunicado -- or in exile.

In a speech to supporters ahead of the vote on Friday, Lukashenko called the 2020 protests "like a vaccine" to prevent them happening again.

"All our opponents and enemies should understand: do not hope, we will never repeat what we had in 2020," he told a stadium in Minsk during a carefully choreographed ceremony.

- Belarusians hope for 'no war' -

Most people in Belarus have only distant memories of life in the landlocked country before Lukashenko, who was 39 when he won the first national election in Belarus since it gained independence from the Soviet Union.

Criticism of the strongman is banned in Belarus. Most people AFP spoke to in Minsk and other towns voiced support for him, but were still fearful of giving their surnames.

The other candidates running against Lukashenko have been picked to give the election an air of democracy and few know who they are.

"I will vote for Lukashenko because things have improved since he became president (in 1994)," said 42-year-old farmer Alexei in the tiny village of Gubichi in south-eastern Belarus.

He earns around 300 Euros a month selling milk.

But, like many in Belarus, he is worried about the war in neighbouring Ukraine.

In 2022, Russian troops entered Ukraine from several directions, including from Belarus. The following year, Russia sent tactical nuclear weapons to the country, which borders NATO.

Alexei said he wished "for there not to be a war."

The regime's narrative has been to say that Lukashenko guaranteed peace and order in Belarus, accusing 2020 street protest leaders of sewing chaos.