Ignoring the opposition's attacks and EU sanctions, Alexander Lukashenko is crowned president of Belarus for a seventh term, to remain in power until 2030 and ensure the iron alliance with Vladimir Putin, who should remain in the Kremlin until the same year. The results of an exit poll released immediately after the closing of the polls, give the outgoing head of state the victory in the presidential elections with 87.6% of the votes and a turnout of over 80% .
Belarus has a "brutal democracy," Lukashenko said this morning, in AFP's translation, speaking to reporters immediately after casting his ballot. A model of "democracy" that has seen him in power since 1994 and that has allowed him to consolidate his control over the country after the vast repression of protests following the previous parliamentary elections, in 2020, which led to the imprisonment of opposition activists, journalists, members of non-governmental organizations and protesters.
According to the UN, over 300,000 people have taken the path of exile, out of a population of 9 million. While according to human rights organizations there are currently over 1,200 political prisoners . Among them the Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski and Sergei Tikhanovsky, husband of the opposition leader, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who has taken refuge abroad.
At a rally in Warsaw today, Tikhanovskaya called Lukashenko "a criminal who seized power" and denounced the elections, in which four little-known candidates were admitted alongside him, as "a farce" .
The opposition leader is expected tomorrow at the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, where the Belarus dossier will be on the table of the 27. After having stated that Lukashenko "has no legitimacy", the European Union's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, announced that the Union "will continue to impose restrictive and targeted measures against the regime".
(Online Union)
