The election commission reported the president won 83.5 percent of the vote, which was monitored by envoys from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The OSCE will present a report on the polls to the European Union on Monday, which is then expected to release a formal statement.
Reuters quoted diplomatic sources as saying the EU is prepared to lift sanctions, at least temporarily, against the cash-strapped Lukashenko government if the report warrants doing so.
Lukashenko faced nominal opposition Sunday from two pro-government parties and a little-known opposition activist.
Most of the president's opponents and at least one opposition candidate in the 2010 polls were arrested shortly after polls closed, while police detained hundreds of opposition supporters after launching a violent crackdown on thousands of street protesters in Minsk.
Former candidate Nikolai Statkevich spent nearly five years in prison before Lukashenko unexpectedly ordered his release in August, along with five other political prisoners.
The releases were widely seen as an overture toward Western governments, which imposed sanctions in recent years against the Lukashenko government for its harsh treatment of opposition activists.
voanews.com
11/10/15
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Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko won a fifth term in office by a landslide on Sunday in an election that could see an easing of relations with the West and raise questions about his ties to Vladimir Putin’s Russia...
ReplyDeleteLukashenko's re-election five years ago led to mass protests and the imprisonment of leading opposition figures, but support for his 20-year-old regime has risen since he cast himself as a guarantor of stability in the face of an economic crisis and a pro-Russian separatist conflict in neighbouring Ukraine.
The West has long ostracised Lukashenko’s Belarus, described in 2005 by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as “Europe’s last dictatorship”, over its human rights record and clamp-down on political dissent. It has imposed economic sanctions on some Belarussian officials and companies................http://www.france24.com/en/20151012-belarus-elects-lukashenko-fifth-term-russia-fraud
The European Union has decided to suspend sanctions against Belarus for four months, but is ready to re-impose them at any time if needed, French Minister of state for European affairs Harlem Desir said Monday....
ReplyDeleteBelarus, a former Soviet republic, has been under US and EU sanctions for about a decade, including visa bans and financial restrictions on Belarusian individuals and entities.
The West accuses the Belarusian authorities of persecuting the political opposition and denying citizens’ basic rights and freedoms, in particular, freedom of expression.
"We have made a decision, in light of the release of several political prisoners, and after elections that were held in an atmosphere of consolidation, though we are awaiting a report from observers to make a more complete decision. The decision that was made is to have the opportunity to extend sanctions against Belarus, but to suspend them to promote human rights, democracy, the rule of law," Desir told reporters.
"So for the next four months, the decision is to suspend the sanctions, but they can be re-imposed immediately if this is justified," he added.
Earlier in the day, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that a number of European Union members were ready to ease sanctions against Belarus if the current political situation in the country was maintained.
(Sputnik)
12/10/15