Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko defended the controversial election in his country on Sunday, saying political opponents chose to go to jail or leave the country rather than go through a free and fair electoral process. Speaking after casting his vote, Lukashenko talked at a media conference that lasted over four hours where he dismissed all criticism from the west regarding the country’s political dissent.
In response to the queries over the lack of opposition leaders, who are either imprisoned or in exile, Lukashenko retorted that “Some chose prison, some chose ‘exile,’ as you say. We didn’t kick anyone out of the country.” He clarified that those people, who were incarcerated, broke the law as they were being very aggressive towards the government.
European Union and the United States denounced the election as a “sham” since opposition leaders have been repressed and independent media banned. The EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, described the election as “a blatant affront to democracy,” while the exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya referred to the electoral process as a “ritual for dictators.”
Lukashenko, however, was unapologetic and did not seem to care if the West would recognize his re-election. He said Belarus would only talk to the European Union on its terms, refusing to “bow” to Western powers.
The last Belarusian election was in 2020, where widespread protests shook the country to its core; the regime, led by Lukashenko, violently suppressed those protests, jailing thousands of people. Viasna is one of many human rights organizations that report over 1,250 political prisoners are still languishing in the country, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, among others. Meanwhile, Lukashenko continued insisting that his government was simply enforcing the law.