Opposition holds pre-election rally in Belarus

Demonstrators wave a historical Belarus flag during an opposition…

The rest, who are all in favour of the incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko, have nothing.

Liudmila Vauchok, a six-time Paralympic medallist in cross-country skiing and rowing, said she voted for Lukashenko, saying he had brought “reliability and calm” to the country.

The results of the election will be announced by the Central Election Commission in about 10 days after the day’s polling is over.

At a polling station in a dormitory for laborers in Bobruisk, a sleepy city 90 miles south of the capital Minsk, a portrait of Lukashenko hung over the registration table as a choir of elderly war veterans sang traditional Soviet songs. Worldwide observers also raised concerns.

Lukashenko, 61, is seeking his fifth term against a fractured and weakened opposition, with the country besieged by economic turmoil and an 18-month conflict in neighboring Ukraine. “I voted because it is the duty of every citizen… He would love to let go of Russian Federation but they (the Kremlin) won’t allow it. On the one hand, he is bound by his past; on the other, there is Putin”.

The first ever female presidential candidate, Tatsiana Karatkevich, is a member of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Assembly) and “Tell the Truth” civic campaign, which is aimed at making the authorities more accountable to the people. “Therefore for me it is very important: If Lukashenko wins, that I retain what was there in the past election”.

Lukashenko is seemingly grooming Nikolai, known as Kolya, as his successor. It has imposed economic sanctions on a few Belarusian officials and companies.

Often styled as “Europe’s last dictator”, he faced no serious challenge with leading opposition figures either barred from standing or boycotting the ballot.

On Saturday, the Belarussian dissident who just won the 2015 Nobel Literature Prize, said the European Union should beware of Lukashenko.

“As Stalin once said, it’s unimportant who votes or for whom, what matters is who counts the vote”, she said, speaking through a translator, at an event organized by her German publisher.

Lukashenko has largely preserved the state-controlled Soviet type of the economy – albeit thanks to cheap Russian Federation gas and Western loans.

But Anton Gurevich, a 41-year-old automobile factory worker, said it was time for a change. This “polyphonic” style is “a new kind of literary genre”, the Swedish Academy’s permanent secretary said (video, 2:28).

In the 21 years under Alexander Lukashenko’s rule, Belarus in many ways has seemed little different than the Soviet republic it once was. “We have carried out everything the West wanted on the eve of the elections”.

In 2010, most of the candidates who opposed him were arrested soon after the polls closed.

By providing the only alternative for opposition supporters, 38-year-old Korotkevich has made a strong showing in opinion polls, but even her team doubts she could push the election into a second round.

On Friday, an European Union official said it may suspend sanctions on Belarus, following the release of political prisoners there earlier this year, signaling what could be the end of the nine-year-long global isolation.