Local Elections in Belarus - Results As Lukashenko Expected

MINSK, Belarus, January 16, 2007

About 7 million voters were eligible to take part in the election of 1,581 local councils in Belarus on January 14, 2007 and only 70% of them took part in the elections. The final results of this "vote" to be summed up on January 18 or 19. However, even now it is clear that opposition representatives haven't been allowed to be elected to local councils. Not even ONE of them! Only Government loyalists are allowed to get elected "democratically".

On January 9-13, 2007 almost 25% of voters have taken part in the early vote. The number of people who had taken part in the early vote is higher than in previous elections, and almost the same as in the presidential vote in 2006. Probably, the unique new Belarusian system of elections is created in stone? Or, probably, it is just the same old dictatorial system what Lenin & Stalin used in the Soviet Union for tens of years? The result is the same and the same people have the same power over and over again playing "election games" and electing the same ONE loyalist out of the same ONE loyalist. Same Sicilian Belarusian mafia is on the top and on the bottom of the society structure. White crows are not allowed to participate. Elections are only for black crows! No surprise there.

Belarus opposition and human rights activists denounced Sunday's vote as rigged, and the United States and the European Union said it failed to meet democratic standards.

As the United States Embassy in Minsk Press Release (January 15, 2007) says: "As in previous elections, the Government of Belarus denied to its citizens their freedom of assembly, association, and expression. Authorities used intimidation and arbitrary application of registration standards to exclude opposition candidates and severely restricted the access of registered candidates to voters and the mass media. We call upon the Belarusian authorities not to harm, threaten or detain persons for their political activities.

The United States congratulates those courageous Belarusians who, despite every obstacle and at great personal risk, struggled to exercise their basic human rights in the course of the local elections. We continue to stand with the people of Belarus and support their aspirations for democracy and freedom."

"There have been no free and fair elections in Belarus over the past decade, and these local elections weren't an exception," the main opposition leader, Alexander Milinkevich, told The Associated Press.