Belarus will hold so-called presidential elections on 26 January, with self-proclaimed current Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko poised to secure a seventh term.

Source : European Pravda

Details : These will be Belarus' first elections since huge protests against Lukashenko's victory in a fraudulent election erupted in August 2020. 

Lukashenko's dictatorship unleashed severe repressions against demonstrators, and the Western international community declared that the elections were rigged.

Since then, there has been no real opposition in the country and the work of independent media has been blocked, with opponents of the regime either imprisoned or in exile.

According to the Central Election Commission of Belarus, four more candidates have been registered to run in the election apart from Lukashenko. Early voting turnout has supposedly already set a record.

Background :

• The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that there were no grounds to call the 26 January vote in Belarus a "presidential election" and that the results were known in advance.
• Ukraine expressed solidarity with the position of the EU member states, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and other democratic countries regarding the lack of basic conditions for fair and transparent elections in accordance with OSCE standards in Belarus.
• Ukraine recognises Lukashenko as an ally and accomplice of Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin in his war against Ukraine.
• The leader of the united Belarusian opposition, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, said that the so-called presidential election in Belarus cannot be called an election and called on the West not to recognise it. 

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