Lawmakers in Belarus on Wednesday set the next presidential election for Jan 26, a vote almost certain to extend the three-decade rule of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has suppressed all political dissent.
Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya denounced the upcoming balloting as a “farce.”
Lukashenko has already said he would seek what would be his seventh consecutive term, extending back to 1994, and confirmed it on Wednesday in remarks to Russian state TV. His last victory came in a 2020 election denounced by the opposition and the West as fraudulent.
Photo: EPA-EFE
That prompted an unprecedented wave of mass protests, and his government responded with a violent crackdown, arresting and beating thousands. Opposition leaders have since been jailed or forced to flee the country.
Tsikhanouskaya, who ran against Lukashenko in 2020, urged Belarusians and the world not to recognize the upcoming election amid the continuing political crackdown.
“Lukashenko has set the date for his ‘reelection’ for Jan. 26, but it’s a sham performance without a real electoral process that is taking place in the atmosphere of terror,” Tsikhanouskaya said in a statement. “We urge Belarusians and the international community to reject this farce.”
Viasna, Belarus’ oldest and most prominent human rights organization, said there are about 1,300 political prisoners in Belarus — including leaders of opposition parties and the group’s founder Ales Bialiatski, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.
Lukashenko in recent months unexpectedly released 115 political prisoners, after the government said they applied for clemency and repented.
Analysts believe he is using the issue of political prisoners to seek Western recognition of the election result and to soften sanctions against his government.
Lukashenko’s current term expires next summer, but election officials said advancing the process to the beginning of the year would allow the president “to exercise his powers at the initial stage of strategic planning.”
However, Belarusian political analyst Valery Karbalevich gave a different reason for scheduling a vote earlier in the year.
“There won’t be mass protests in freezing January,” he said.
Lukashenko would use that fact and his recent release of political prisoners to begin bargaining with the West, he added.
“Lukashenko’s trauma of months-long mass protests still hasn’t healed, and it dictates the model of presidential elections in January with no discussions and no choice,” he added.
Belarusian authorities have not said whether they would invite any international observers to monitor the vote.
Belarus refused to allow monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to observe this year’s parliamentary election for the first time in decades.
Under the complete control of Lukashenko’s government, voting booths for the first time did not have privacy curtains, and voters were not allowed to take photographs of their ballots, which made it impossible to carry out any independent count.
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
BORDER SERVICES: With the US-funded International Rescue Committee telling clinics to shut by tomorrow, Burmese refugees face sudden discharge from Thai hospitals Healthcare centers serving tens of thousands of refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border have been ordered shut after US President Donald Trump froze most foreign aid last week, forcing Thai officials to transport the sickest patients to other facilities. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which funds the clinics with US support, told the facilities to shut by tomorrow, a local official and two camp committee members said. The IRC did not respond to a request for comment. Trump last week paused development assistance from the US Agency for International Development for 90 days to assess compatibility with his “America First” policy. The freeze has thrown
TESTING BAN: Satellite photos show a facility in the Chinese city of Mianyang that could aid nuclear weapons design and power generation, a US researcher said China appears to be building a large laser-ignited fusion research center in the southwestern city of Mianyang, experts at two analytical organizations said, a development that could aid nuclear weapons design and work exploring power generation. Satellite photos show four outlying “arms” that would house laser bays, and a central experiment bay that would hold a target chamber containing hydrogen isotopes the powerful lasers would fuse together, producing energy, said Decker Eveleth, a researcher at US-based independent research organization CNA Corp. It is a similar layout to the US$3.5 billion US National Ignition Facility (NIF) in northern California, which in 2022 generated
RSS