BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
29/09/2008
Belarus election: Opposition parties fail to win single seat
Belarussian leader Alexander Lukashenko has suffered a setback in his bid to shed his image as "Europe's last dictator" after opposition parties failed to win a single seat in parliamentary elections.
By Colin Freeman in Minsk
The contest was branded a "farce" by the president's critics as the Belarussian central election commission declared last night that 99 out of 110 parliamentary seats had gone to pro-government politicians.
The opposition candidates in the remaining 11 districts were relative unknowns and not expected to win either.
"The dictator has shown his true face," said Anatoly Lebedko, leader of the opposition United Civil Party. "There was no election in Belarus. It was an electoral farce for the West."
The complete failure of the opposition to gain any hold in government will now present the European Union and America with a dilemma over whether to recognise the results of the polls.
In a bid to improve relations with the West after a souring of his friendship with Moscow, Mr Lukashenko had pledged to make the vote comply with "Western standards", allowing in foreign observers and giving opposition candidates a degree of freedom to campaign.
Western diplomats had welcomed his efforts as a step in the right direction, and had hinted that an election deemed to be conducted in a free and fair fashion could lead to a lifting of the current sanctions on Mr Lukashenko's regime.
However, while foreign observers are not understood to have spotted any major evidence of ballot rigging, a vote which does absolutely nothing to change political status quo will be hard to give a credible rubber stamp of approval to.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which sent more than 400 monitors to supervise the elections, will give its verdict on the conduct of the vote.
Mr Lukashenko has been the subject of a European Union visa ban since 2006, when he jailed political opponents and launched a violent crackdown on crowds protesting over rigged presidential polls.
Opposition parties claimed that the easing of conditions at the most recent elections was simply "window dressing" by Mr Lukashenko to acquire a democratic veneer. They say despite suffering less police harrassment than in the past, they were still allowed only limited airtime and campaigning budgets, putting them on an unequal footing with established government candidates.
As soon as the polls closed last night, about 500 opposition supporters turned out on the central square of the capital, Minsk, to protest the vote.
Some then also marched to the headquarters of the KGB, chanting "shame".
"We are tired of living in fear. We are tired of repression," said Natalya Kurilovich, 34. "I'm tired of Lukashenko stealing votes. I want a European future for my children."
The Belarussian government claimed the results proved that the opposition were simply weak and untrusted by the country's seven million voters, many of whom do appreciate the stability that Mr Lukashenko's tough style has brought.
"The voter is afraid of losing what he has," said Lidia Yermoshina, the head of the central election commission.
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