Has the West ‘believed’ in Lukashenko?

Presidential elections have recently been held in Belarus. Alexander Lukashenko, the incumbent president, won the election. According to exit polls, he received 80.3% of the votes cast. This information was published by the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, which organized the survey.

The first conclusions about the quality of these presidential elections were made by the mission of the CIS observers.

"The elections were held in accordance with the Constitution and the Electoral Code of the Republic of Belarus," the head of the observer mission Sergey Lebedev said.

"The elections were held in accordance with the principles for democratic elections, they were transparent, open and competitive,’’ he stated.

Taking into account the results of the quality of the elections, representatives of the CIS mission expressed hope that the EU may cancel the sanctions imposed on Lukashenko because of  human rights violations.

Observers from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, who participated in the elections in Belarus, also didn’t discover any irregularities in the voting procedure.

"The mission not only considers that the elections correspond to all the democratic standards and requirements of the national electoral legislation, but also believes that it is a highly important process, which showed the high interest of the citizens of Belarus as well as proving the fact that they can actually influence the future of the country,’’ the secretary general of the SCO Dmitry Mezentsev said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Alexander Lukashenko on his victory and said that "the convincing victory in the elections shows a high political authority, trust of the population, as well as active support for the ongoing course of the further socio-economic development of the country."

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev wrote in his congratulatory telegram that Alexander Lukashenko's victory shows that Belorusian citizens support the current political course aimed at sustainable socio-economic development and growth of welfare and strengthening the country's position in the world community.

The Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Garibashvili, congratulated Alexander Lukashenko on his re-election as President of Belarus. He also expressed confidence that bilateral relations will develop successfully.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that the recent elections in Belarus didn’t meet international standards. "However, the situation has changed in comparison with previous presidential elections," he said.

"We recognize and respect these changes, however, we are observing the process not only until the end of voting, but up until the formation of the government,’’ he stressed.

Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said that Europeans have doubts about their compliance with international standards after the presidential elections, adding that the issue of sanctions "will be solved."

Earlier, the EU imposed sanctions against Belarus because of human rights violations. The main condition of the European Union was the release of all "political prisoners." Minsk claimed that there are no political prisoners.

The head of the short-term OSCE observer mission, Kent Harstedt, welcomed the democratic changes that have taken place in the country in recent years, but much things remain to be done. 

He noted that the recent release of a number of opposition leaders was a positive development for the observers.

The head of the long-term mission of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, Jacques Faure, said that the activity of the Belarusian electoral commissions and a lack of opportunities to observe the process of counting votes cause some problems. "There are grounds for serious concerns about the transparency of the electoral authorities," he said.

The editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs, Fyodor Lukyanov, in an interview with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza expressed the opinion that the West, especially Europe, discusses the past in Belarus in an extremely evasive way. "Certainly, it is difficult to assume their respective high standards of direct, free and fair elections, but they were held, and the West accepts their results," the analyst said.