BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

29/09/2008

Protests after Opposition routed

Ursula Hyzy in Minsk

OPPOSITION parties in Belarus failed to win a single seat in parliamentary elections seen as a test of the former Soviet state's democracy, the electoral commission said yesterday.

"Not a single opposition candidate was elected, at least not among those represented by the parties," the Central Elections Commission chief, Lidia Yermoshina, said. The result appears to justify the concerns of hundreds of protesters who took to the streets after the poll.

President Alexander Lukashenko, dubbed "Europe's last dictator" by Washington, courted the West in the lead-up to the polls in an apparent bid to thaw relations with the US and European Union which imposed sanctions on both him and his regime over his jailing of political opponents in 2006.

The former chicken-farm manager is seeking new friends after falling out with Russia over its recent invasion of Georgia, and over Moscow's decision to end subsided gas supplies.

Washington and Brussels have offered better ties with the former Soviet republic if they approve of the election, but opposition demonstrators slammed the vote as a farce.

One of the protesters, Maya Stachevskaya, declared: "Europe should not recognise these elections. Lukashenko does not organise free elections, he just names winners."

Earlier, a coalition of anti-Lukashenko groups criticised the election. "It is clear these elections cannot be recognised as honest and fair under any criteria. We do not recognise the results," Anatoly Lebedko, the leader of the opposition United Citizen Party, said.

Mr Lukashenko, the iron-fisted ruler of the economically backward former Soviet republic for 14 years, has clamped down hard on protests in the past.

Source:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/protests-after-opposition-routed/2008/09/29/1222650990686.html

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