EDITORIAL: The vote in Belarus (03/26/06)

EDITORIAL

The vote in Belarus

The March 19 presidential election in Belarus, Ukraine's neighbor to the north, in which President Alyaksandr Lukashenka won a third term in office with nearly 83 percent of the vote, has been unequivocally described as rigged. The next highest vote-getter was opposition candidate Alyaksandr Milinkevich, who won merely 6 percent, if the official figures are to be believed. (It should be noted here that a 2004 referendum had approved a constitutional amendment that did away with the two-term limit for the office of president, thus paving the way for Mr. Lukashenka's third term. That referendum itself was condemned by international observers as a rigged vote.)

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the European Union and the Council of Europe have all said the election did not meet international standards and have condemned the abuse of state power. The EU has said that new sanctions against Mr. Lukashenka and his regime are quite likely.

In the United States, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said: "We support the [opposition's] call for a new election. We will stand with the people of Belarus and back their aspirations to take their rightful place among the world's democracies."

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Mr. Lukashenka: "The outcome of the elections demonstrates the confidence of voters in your course aimed at further raising the well-being of the Belarusian people."

On election night, in defiance of the authorities' threats of arrests on charges of terrorism, 20,000 people gathered in the center of the Belarusian capital, constituting the largest anti-government really in Belarus in 12 years. Since then the opposition has staged a continuous demonstration in October Square - an expression of public sentiment reminiscent of Ukraine's Orange Revolution - to protest fraud in the presidential election and to demand a new vote.

Mr. Lukashenka called his re-election a victory over foreign pressure exerted by states that are critical of his regime. "The revolution that was talked about so much and prepared for so much has failed," he boasted, adding that "the virus of colored revolutions affects weakened countries..."

The opposition, however, does not agree. "We have won and it does not matter what they announce; they will announce a ridiculous percentage [for Lukashenka]," RFE/RL quoted Mr. Milinkevich as telling the demonstrators on March 19. "We have won because people believe they can stand up for freedom, truth, justice and their own dignity. ... This is a victory over fear."

Thousands continued to demonstrate on succeeding days, with several hundred demonstrators opting to remain on the square overnight. The demonstrators received the backing of the ambassadors of the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Czech Republic, who came out to the square on March 21 to show their support for the people of Belarus.

The OSCE's chairman-in-office, Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht, speaking of over 200 detentions in the first three days following the elections, underscored that "It is unacceptable that people are being detained for trying to uphold their right to assembly and to express their views in a peaceful way. The Belarusian authorities must immediately put an end to the persecution of their opponents."

And still the demonstrations continued, as Mr. Milinkevich called on the protesters to remain in the square through March 25, the 88th anniversary of the Belarusian Democratic Republic, an independent, but short-lived state from 1918.

There are many young people among the demonstrators. An 18-year-old student, Stepan Svidersky, told The New York Times on March 22: "They may attack and beat us, and inflict great trauma. But we have already achieved a result: We have shown our country that we are not afraid to stand against arbitrary rule."

And thus, perhaps there is reason to believe that the newborn freedom movement has a chance for success in Belarus, the last dictatorship in Europe.

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