After 26 years in office, the autocratic leader of Belarus is contending with circumstances beyond his control as he tries to win a sixth term.
FILE In this file photo taken on Friday, Feb. 7, 2020, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko listens to Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in the Black sea resort of Sochi, Russia. Lukashenko faces a perfect storm as he seeks a sixth term in the election held Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020 after 26 years in office.
Rumblings among the ruling elite and a bitter rift with Russia, Belarus’s main sponsor and ally, compound the reelection challenge facing the 65-year-old former state farm director on Sunday.
“They were telling us that the virus doesn’t exist and dismissed it as ‘psychosis’ while tens of thousands of Belarusians have got sick,” said Diana Golubovich, 54, a lawyer who attended Tsikhanouskaya’s rally in Brest, a city on the border with Poland. “Suddenly everyone realized that the social-oriented state that Lukashenko was boasting about doesn’t exist.”Belarus, a country of 9.5 million people, has reported more than 68,500 confirmed virus cases and 580 deaths in the pandemic.
“Lukashenko lacks a plan to modernize the country. He has taken political freedoms away, and now he is depriving people of a chance for economic growth,” said Valery Tsepkalo, a former Belarusian ambassador to the United States who planned to challenge Lukashenko for the presidency but fled to Russia with his children last month to avoid imminent arrest. “That is the main reason behind protests.”
“No one trusts the government’s promises any more,” said Anton Rubankevich, 46, who makes the equivalent of $480 a month. “If this president stays, we will continue falling into a pit.” In what the political opposition and many independent observers regarded as an attempt to shore up the incumbent’s sagging public support, Belarusian authorities last week arrested 33 Russian military contractors and charged them with plans to stage “mass riots.”
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