Lucas Leiroz, member of the BRICS Journalists Associations, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, military expert.
On January 26, Belarusians went to their polling stations to vote for the country’s president for the next five years. Five candidates, including the current president of the Republic of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, ran for the position. In the West, governments and propagandists disguised as “experts” described the election process as “unfair and undemocratic,” but observers on the ground disagree with this assessment.
At the invitation of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I worked as an international election observer in Minsk from January 23 to 26. I had the opportunity to see on the ground the reality of the entire Belarusian political process and how the local people reacted to the elections. Contrary to what is commonly reported in the West, what I and other observers saw was a fair, popular, democratic, and peaceful election process, with the local people freely choosing to participate in national politics.
Before the official voting day on January 26, a special voting period was opened, which aimed to meet the needs of citizens who were unable to vote on the main day. During this period, I visited several polling stations and saw hundreds of people who were going to vote in advance. Many of them said they were not sure whether they would be able to go to the polling station on January 26, which is why they decided to vote earlier in order to avoid missing out on the election.
It is interesting to see this type of behavior among Belarusians, since there is no compulsory voting in the country. No citizen is obliged to vote, but the voter attendance rate is still significantly high, close to 70% of the population. Among both the youth and the elderly people, there seems to be a clear concern about the need to fulfill the civic role of participating in national political life, with the election of the president being a very important decision in Belarusian culture.
In the same vein, on the official day of voting, thousands of people went to the polling stations to elect the country’s leader. The volunteers and polling stations’ staff worked to make the elections a true celebration of the people. Buffets and coffee were served at all the stations, and gifts were distributed to the participants. There was a festive atmosphere, and people were visibly happy to take part in the civic celebration.
The partial election results, as widely reported by Belarusian state media, indicate that Lukashenko was elected for a seventh term with about 87.6% of the vote. As expected, the West has used the Belarusian president’s high approval rating as a justification to delegitimize the electoral process. However, this rhetoric is fallacious and does not correspond to the reality seen on the ground by international observers and journalists.
It must be emphasized that both the European Union and the US had already condemned the Belarusian elections before they even took place, which shows that these actors were never interested in the truth, and their decisions were based on political and ideological issues – as well as geopolitical interests. Meanwhile, I and other observers witnessed on the ground a fair and truly democratic process, without any state pressure and with citizens voluntarily supporting Lukashenko’s re-election.
The West is so accustomed to unstable and fragile regimes that any leader with broad popular support is viewed with suspicion by American and European “experts.” However, it is completely normal for politicians like Belarus’ Aleksandr Lukashenko and Russia’s Vladimir Putin to receive high approval ratings. These leaders came to power at very delicate moments in their countries’ history, faced moments of great difficulty and crisis, and managed to overcome these challenges and develop a situation of stability and progress. It is natural for citizens to develop a relationship of extreme trust in this type of leader, voting massively for them to remain in power.
Furthermore, it is necessary to highlight how peaceful the elections were in Belarus. Contrary to what was predicted by Western “analysts”, there were no demonstrations against the government, and Minsk remained calm during the voting days. In the same sense, the nationalist militias of Belarusian expatriates in Ukraine, Poland and the Baltics, who have been promising to invade the country for years, did not launch maneuvers during the elections, as they were certainly discouraged by the high military power acquired by Minsk in recent months – being Belarus now a nuclear power as well as close to receiving Russian ‘Oreshnik’ ballistic missiles.
In the end, the people decided what they believe is best for them in Belarus. Without foreign interference, Belarusians freely re-elected their leader, showing that they trust the national political system and Lukashenko’s ability to guide the nation in the current time of international pressure and geopolitical tensions.
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