BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

14/01/2007

Belarusians vote in local elections seen as test for isolated regime

The Associated Press

MINSK, Belarus: Belarusian voters cast ballots Sunday in local elections that are seen as a test for the ex-Soviet nation's isolated regime after a bitter oil dispute with neighboring Russia that could have economically painful effects.

Leaders of the embattled opposition, one of whom withdrew from the race on the grounds that they could not compete fairly, say the elections have taken place under tight official control and predict widespread falsification.

But the polls still represent a rare opportunity to communicate directly with the electorate. Under the hardline rule of President Alexander Lukashenko, television is under state control and few independent media are allowed.

Some 7 million voters are eligible to take part in the election of 1,581 local councils.

The main opposition leader, Alexander Milinkevich, suggested the local elections would not accurately reflect public opinion, contending that they were being held "under colossal pressure from the authorities" and would be falsified.

But he said the opposition would use the elections to tell voters about "the dangerous situation in which Lukashenko has placed Belarus."

Russia has just lifted a 72-hour oil blockade that disrupted supplies to Europe, and provoked renewed concern about the reliability of Russian energy deliveries.

Belarus' Soviet-style, state-controlled economy has long relied on cheap Russian energy, which Lukashenko has used to buttress his popularity during his almost 13-year rule.

Now, the country stands to lose billions of dollars a year from the combined squeeze of a doubling of Russian natural gas prices imposed just before the New Year and the ending of a duty-free regime for Russian oil imports that had enabled it to resell refined products abroad at a hefty profit.

"I have lost trust in Lukashenko and his policies, but there is no one from the opposition among the candidates and I crossed out all the names from the list," said Andrei Turovsky, a 48-year-old engineer who was voting in Minsk, the capital.

Only 200 opposition candidates were able to register for the election of 22,500 members of local councils. Most seats are being sought by a single person, unopposed.

Belarus is already facing European Union and U.S. sanctions imposed over democracy concerns, and Belarusian analysts say the loss in revenue from re-exported oil products and the cost from higher natural gas costs could total up to 8 percent of the country's GDP.

But Lukashenko, who won re-election to a third term last year with more than 82 percent of the vote in a ballot that international observers said was illegitimate, has cracked down hard on the opposition before these elections, human rights activists say.

Security forces have detained or briefly held hundreds of opposition activists during the electoral campaign, including its leaders, according to the Belarusian Helsinki Committee.

"Lukashenko today is in a dangerous situation and is using force to try to quash any signs of discontent," said Oleg Gulak, acting head of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee.

One opposition leader, the United Civil Party' Anatoly Lebedko, withdrew his candidacy on the eve of the ballot in protest at what he described as an electoral process "designed to appoint and not elect lawmakers."

Source:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/14/europe/EU-POL-Belarus-Elections.php

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