With not a single opposition politician winning a seat in this weekend's parliamentary election in Belarus, international condemnation has been harsh. Amid claims of widespread fraud, the country's Elections Commission said the turnout was 74.3 percent, though local observers it was closer to 55 percent.
The opposition, which failed to agree on a unified approach for protesting the election conditions, received no coverage by the state-run media in the run-up to the vote. And at least 20 independent election observers were held by authorities, activists said.
The rubber-stamp parliament is now filled with politicians from three parties that support authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. The 58-year-old has been in power since 1994 in the country commonly known as "Europe's last dictatorship." Western observers say that since 1995, no election in the country has been free or fair, and the latest vote is likely to deepen its diplomatic isolation.
Economic and travel sanctions have already been levied on Belarus by the United States and the European Union in response to the regime's treatment of opposition groups and independent media, and the West may now take an even tougher approach. In a statement released on Monday, Germany's Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said that Berlin and its European partners would seek to further isolate the country, citing "glaring irregularities" in the vote. "The aim of giving President Lukashenko's regime the appearance of democratic legitimacy has clearly failed," he said.
With EU talks on the Belarusian political situation scheduled for next month, there has been discussion of strengthening sanctions against the country's leadership. One concern is Minsk's increasingly close relationship with neighboring Russia, which has provided significant financial support to Belarus in recent years.
Read Full Article »