Lukashenko, often referred to as "Europe's last dictator," was named winner of Sunday's presidential election, with preliminary results showing he secured nearly 87% of the vote share, according to the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Belarus. None of the five remaining candidates won more than 3.6%.
The contest was swiftly challenged by the democratic governments of Australia, Britain, Canada, the European Union and New Zealand, who called it a "sham" in a joint statement.
The European nation has been rocked by instability since Lukashenko was elected to a sixth five-year term in 2020. Since then, the country has been marked by political oppression, with political opposition leaders fleeing the country, supporters arrested and Belarus' continued support for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his war in Ukraine.
In swift response to what it called a "rigged" presidential election, Britain sanctioned six individuals and three entities.
Meanwhile, Canada coincided with sanctions against 10 individuals and 12 entities.
Both countries blacklisted Igor Vasilyevich Karpenko, chairman of the Belarusian Central Election Commission, as well as heads of various correctional facilities and law enforcement department, the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption.
"The world has become well-accustomed to Lukashenko's cynical pretense of democracy in Belarus, while in reality, he brutally represses civil society and opposition voices to strengthen his grip on power," Britain's foreign secretary, David Lammy, said in a statement.
Britain and Canada have repeatedly responded to Belarus' authoritarian slide and support for Russia with sanctions, with London designating a total 135 individuals and 32 entities, and Ottawa hitting more than 220 individuals and approximately 80 entities.
Global Affairs Canada described the sanctions as being a "coordinate, multilateral effort" aimed at holding the Lukashenko regime to account.
"No election can be considered free, fair or in line with international standards when it is held in a climate of ongoing repression, marked by a clampdown on civil society, arbitrary detentions and restrictions on genuine participation," it said in a statement.
The words from Ottawa's foreign ministry are similar to those published ahead of Belarus' election by Amnesty International, which called on the Lukashenko regime to end its campaign of repression and urged the international community to not ignore the political crisis in the European nation.
"While attention is drawn elsewhere, thousands of people in Belarus remain imprisoned, tortured or silenced simply for expressing their opinions," Marie Struthers, Amnesty International's Eastern Europe and Central Asia director, said in a statement on Friday.
"Governments and international organizations must act decisively to seek an immediate end to this ongoing crisis and hold the Belarusian authorities accountable for it."
According to the Belarusian non-governmental organization Viasna Human Rights Center, more than 3,270 people have been convicted for participating in protests against the widely discredited 2020 election results.
Tractors, forests, nuclear weapons: Five things about Belarus
Warsaw (AFP) Jan 23, 2025 -
Belarus is holding a presidential election on Sunday that will secure another five-year mandate for Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power for over three decades and crushed all opposition.
Here are five things to know about the authoritarian former Soviet republic, a Kremlin ally with a population of nine million people.
- Kremlin subject -
Lukashenko's last re-election in August 2020 with an official tally of more than 80 percent support was followed by a peaceful mass protest movement.
The unprecedented protests rocked the government but were eventually crushed, with several people killed and thousands arrested. Heavy prison sentences were handed out to government critics.
Hundreds of thousands of Belarusians fled.
Targeted by Western sanctions, Lukashenko abandoned a long-standing balancing act between Moscow and the West and turned to the Kremlin for help.
In February 2022, Belarus allowed Russian troops to use its territory to invade Ukraine even though the Belarusian army did not take part.
Moscow has since stationed tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus -- a threat against Kyiv but also against Belarus's NATO-member neighbours Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
- Ravaged by WWII and Chernobyl -
Belarus paid the heaviest price of all the Soviet republics in World War II, which killed a total of 27 million Soviet citizens.
Belarus was first in line as Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, losing 2.3 million inhabitants -- around a quarter of the population.
In April 1986, tragedy struck again when the Chernobyl nuclear power station melted down in neighbouring Ukraine, most of the fallout hitting Belarus.
Around 23 percent of its territory was contaminated, including 1.8 million hectares of farmland.
An exclusion zone of 1,700 square kilometres (over 650 square miles) was created -- most of it in Belarus -- and around 330,000 people were evacuated.
- Potatoes and tractors -
The Belarusian economy is still largely state-owned -- a Soviet legacy that Lukashenko, a former collective farm boss, has preserved.
Output from the country's farms, particularly dairy, carrots and potatoes, is still prized in the rest of the former Soviet Union.
Lukashenko likes to make public appearances on farms.
In 2016, US actor Steven Seagal joined him on a visit and took a bite from a carrot handed to him by the Belarusian leader.
During a visit to the Kremlin in 2018, he gifted Putin four sacks of potatoes.
In industry and manufacturing, Belarus is also known for its tractors -- a source of national pride -- and its lingerie.
The economy has been badly affected by international sanctions.
- Forests and migrants crisis -
A vast landlocked plain, Belarus is divided between areas with Polish and Russian influences.
It also has vast natural reserves -- marshlands, lakes, rivers and forests.
In the west, the Bialowieza forest stretches into Poland.
Formed 10,000 years ago, the forest is a UNESCO world heritage site -- one of the last primeval forests in Europe and a great reservoir of biodiversity.
But Bialowieza is threatened by deforestation and has also been the backdrop of a migrant crisis which began in 2021 between Poland and Belarus.
Warsaw has accused Minsk of encouraging thousands of migrants from Africa and the Middle East to come to Belarus and to enter Polish territory in an attempt to destabilise the European Union.
In response, Poland has built a security fence through the forest which environmentalists warn is limiting the movement of wild animals.
- Death sentence -
Belarus is the last country in Europe and the former Soviet Union that still carries out capital punishment, killing people with a bullet to the back of the neck.
The dates of executions are never made public, the bodies of prisoners are not returned to their families and no information is released about where they have been interred.
Non-governmental organisations say 400 people have been executed in Belarus since 1991. The last reported execution dates back to 2022.
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