Belarus announces date for Lukashenko’s next election victory – POLITICO

Belarus will hold its next presidential elections on January 26, 2025, the country’s Central Election Commission announced Wednesday.

Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian dictator who has ruled the country since 1994 and is a strong ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, has previously said he will run again — and is not expected to lose.

Belarusians voted this year in parliamentary elections in which all four elected parties supported Lukashenko’s regime, after the ruler dissolved all other parties following fraudulent presidential elections in 2020, which were condemned across Europe and the West .

The 2020 vote triggered mass protests that nearly led to Lukashenko’s ouster — but to a brutal campaign to crack down on protesters and opponents that was backed by Putin.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya – who opposed Lukashenko in the 2020 elections after her husband, a prominent opposition candidate, was arrested and jailed during the campaign and then imprisoned for 18 years by authorities in Minsk – is the main face of the pro-Lukashenko opposition. democracy living in exile.

“Lukashenka announced the date of his ‘re-election’ – January 26th. It is a farce, with no real electoral process, conducted in an atmosphere of terror. No alternative candidates or observers will be permitted. We call on Belarusians and the international community to reject this farce,” said Tsikhanouskaya.

In January, Lukashenko signed a law granting him immunity, lifetime protection and state-provided property after his dismissal from the presidential post.