BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

07/10/2008

Belarus: Still Out in the Cold

By Kester Kenn Klomegah

MINSK, Belarus, Oct 7 (IPS) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has failed to win the support of European Union (EU) member states and the United States following elections last month, that international observers found largely incompatible with democratic standards.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE, a pan-European security organisation) -- whose election assessments are widely considered authoritative -- said the parliamentary elections last month did not meet required standards. Lukashenko dismissed the criticism as "officialese" typical of the organisation.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) in Minsk said there were 263 candidates, including 70 from the opposition, for 110 parliamentary seats before about seven million voters, in a population of 10 million. The voter turnout was about 75 percent. But, it said, none of the opposition candidates won because the opposition had boycotted the election, and people voted for the current regime. The 'opposition' candidates who contested were evidently not the real opposition.

Those leaders argued that they had been excluded from district electoral commissions, and therefore could not have monitored the vote count.

"The greatest setback for opposition forces during this election campaign was that they could not secure inclusion of their representatives in various election commissions which are directly engaged in counting of votes," opposition leader Ales Michalevich told IPS. Also, he said, "opposition access to the state controlled media is always minimal."

"The selection procedure didn't give equal legal rights to other (opposition) candidates," Siarhei Alfer, deputy chairman of the United Civil party (UCP) and associate professor of law at the Institute of Parliament and Enterprises in Minsk told IPS. "There was nothing like an election campaign in the country, which was absurd." The UCP is one of the leading opposition parties in Belarus.

Prof. Oleg Manaev, founder of the Independent Institute of Socio-Economic and Political Studies, a think tank shut down by the Supreme Court in 2005 on a government petition, says that pre-election surveys had shown that a third of the people did not expect fair elections.

"Parliamentary seats were redistributed by the authorities, that's why the new parliament will not reflect the interests of society," Manaev said. "So, the situation is clear and complicated at the same time, but western politicians should use this election for serious re-thinking of their approach to Belarus."

Opposition groups took some blame for boycotting the election. "There are a lot of people who do not accept the regime of Lukashenko, but they also don't see the opposition political parties as an alternative," parliamentary candidate Olga Kozulina told IPS. "If the democratic forces don't contest, they cannot say the elections are rigged."

Manaev said there were other difficulties among the opposition. "Opposition parties continue to focus on their internal issues, as well as recognition from the West rather than on interaction with Belarusian society."

"It was clear that there were many flaws in the election campaign and the process cannot be called democratic, judging from the western understanding of a democratic election," Olga Stuzhinskaya from Democratic Belarus, an NGO advising EU institutions, pro-democratic political parties, civil society groups and independent media in Belarus told IPS. "On the other hand, one has to admit that there was some improvement compared with previous years." Conditions for participation for parliamentary seats had improved, Stuzhinskaya said, but opposition parties were unable to take up the challenge.

The observer mission from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a loose union comprising ex-Soviet states (except the three Baltics republics Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia), has said that the elections were well organised, in accordance with domestic electoral legislation, and in line with widely recognised international norms.

The mission also said that the election commission and the executive bodies had created conditions for drawing in a variety of political forces possible into the election process. Russian authorities said the OSCE assessment was disappointing.

Lukashenko and about 40 officials remain barred from visiting the United States and the EU on grounds that he rigged his 2006 presidential re-election and that earlier parliamentary elections were illegitimate. Lukashenko, dubbed by the U.S. the last post-Soviet dictator in Europe, has been struggling to improve diplomatic ties with other countries.

There have been some signs of headway. The EU has said plans have been drafted to include Belarus in a 'neighbourhood programme' that could pave the way for Belarus to receive financial assistance from the EU. A softening in EU policy started after Belarusian authorities released three political prisoners late August, ahead of the elections. (END/2008)

Source:

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44152

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