UPDATE 2-Lukashenko sneers at opposition boycott as Belarus votes
* Hardline president calls opposition “cowards”
* Low-key election will reinforce Lukashenko
* Opposition parties urge boycott, suggest mushrooming
By Richard Balmforth and Andrei Makhovsky
MINSK, Sept 23 (Reuters) – Belarus’s President Alexander
Lukashenko called opposition leaders “cowards” after they urged
people to go mushrooming rather than vote in an election set to
reinforce the hardline leader’s grip on the ex-Soviet country.
“They are cowards who have nothing to say to the people,”
Lukashenko – a populist who has run the country of 9.5 million
with an iron fist since 1994 – told journalists after voting at
a Minsk polling station where an orchestra turned out to play.
The two main opposition parties see the election as a sham
exercise to produce a 110-seat chamber which largely
rubber-stamps Lukashenko’s directives.
Opposition parties, the United Civic Party and the
Belarussian People’s Front, said anyone voting would be casting
a ballot for his leadership as a whole and would be validating
the detention of political prisoners and election fraud.
But students, armed service staff and police voting had
already produced a 26 percent turnout, official figures showed,
and there was no question of the boycott threatening the overall
turnout threshold and the validity of Sunday’s ballot.
The outcome will enable Lukashenko to present the election
as a genuine democratic process. Western monitoring agencies
have not judged an election in Belarus free and fair since 1995.
Defending his 18-year-long rule and intolerance of dissent,
the former Soviet state farm boss, once described by the U.S.
administration of George W. Bush as Europe’s last dictator, said
on Sunday: “We don’t need revolutions and shake-ups.”
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe
(OSCE) has fielded 330 observers for the election and is
expected to give its verdict on the election on Monday.
“If this time round there is doubt cast on the choice of the
Belarussian people then I don’t know what standards will be good
enough in future elections,” Lukashenko, who was accompanied by
his 7-year-old son Kolya, said.
Asked about possible
You can read the rest of this article at:: http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/09/23/belarus-election-idINL5E8KN0IG20120923
Short URL: http://thepresidency.us/?p=20380
Posted by RobertButler
on Sep 23 2012. Filed under 2012 Presidential Campaign.
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