“Lukashenko very much wants recognised elections”. A September survey predicted Lukashenko would get 64% and Korotkevich 25% of the vote.
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Lukashenko has ruled Belarus with a heavy hand since 1994 and delivered GDP growth every year until 2015 – despite being criticised in the west for human rights abuses, including the stifling of independent media and the arrests and mysterious disappearances of critics.
“Kolya is making fun of the entire country”, says opposition leader Anatoly Lebedko.
A sense of apathy among ordinary Belarussians, combined with a strong desire for stability in the face of a more assertive Russian Federation and a crisis-plagued Ukraine, mean few observers expect large-scale protests as in 2010, when Lukashenko had his main opponents jailed.
Echoing that comment, the head of Belarus’s Centre for European Transformation, Andrei Yegorov, said: “The Belarussian authorities don’t have to do much (for Sunday’s elections)…”
A European source meanwhile said it would be a “political signal” from Brussels to Lukashenko, a once close Moscow ally but who has since played one off against the other in pursuit of his own interests.
“Ukraine didn’t gain from the talks in Minsk. It was a huge PR victory for him”, Viacorka told Al Jazeera. The official date of the presidential election – is Sunday, October 11. “And the goal of this is to trick people into participation in the current elections”, Statkevich told Al Jazeera outside Minsk’s City Hall. Her platform calls for “peaceful changes” but she keeps her criticisms of Lukashenko polite. “What we’ve seen is that people are exhausted of his style of management that doesn’t offer anything for the future”. Small independent newspaper are struggling to survive due to various political and economic pressures.
The 61-year-old president has three sons: 39-year old Viktor, an adviser on the national security council; Dmitry, 35, a functionary with the national Olympic committee; and 11-year-old Nikolai, also known as Kolya.
Zmicer Dashkevich, co-chair of the unregistered youth opposition movement the Young Front.
After the last election in December 2010, riot police had to disperse thousands who took to the streets to protest against a result that awarded Lukashenko almost 80% of the votes.
Lukashenko also announced on Tuesday plans for a Russian airbase in Belarus wouldn’t come to fruition, after discussions had been under way for two years.
“By raising the issue to the agenda at such an inconvenient time for Lukashenko, Russian Federation wants to damage the impartiality of Belarus; block the country’s normalization process with the west; hamper consolidation of our strategic partnership with China and draw us into a new Cold War”, he said.
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“We are creating a free territory for ourselves where we can speak about everything”. Why would I bring here planes and pilots from other states?
