Elections in Belarus: President Lukashenko opposes the most expensive test in years

President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus is seeking a sixth term in office in an election he is both tipped to win, but which is also likely to be his toughest challenge.

He won previous elections by a landslide, but the votes were condemned by election observers.

This time, however, he has a leading rival in a 37-year-old running in place of her imprisoned husband.

Belarus has also seen large-scale opposition protests and a series with Russia.

President Lukashenko, 65, also known as Europe’s last dictator, was first elected in 1994.

In the last vote in 2015, he was declared the winner with 83.5% of the vote. There were no serious challengers and election observers reported problems in counting and tabulating votes.

That this mood will be different?

Probably not. President Lukashenko is widely expected to win again. But the mood is being closely followed amid growing signs of frustration at his leadership.

The campaign has seen the rise of opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a former teacher who became a mother as a stay-at-home mom until she came into the political spotlight.

Her husband was arrested and blocked from registering for the vote, so she entered to take his place.

“People are waking up, discovering their self-esteem,” she told AFP in a recent interview. But she also said she expected the election to be rigged.

President Lukashenko dismissed Ms. Tikhanovskaya as a “poor little girl”, manipulated by foreign “puppet masters”.

Tens of thousands last month defeated an escalating attack on the opposition to attend a protest in the capital Minsk, the largest such demonstration in a decade.

Hundreds of protesters have been held since May, human rights activists say.

On the eve of the vote, Tikhanovskaya’s team said their campaign manager had been arrested and would not be released until Monday.

Does anyone else run?

There are three other candidates:

• Anna Kanopatskaya, a former MP who won a rare seat for the opposition in the 2016 parliamentary elections
• Sergei Cherechen, leader of the Social Democratic Party
• Andrei Dmitriyev, co-chair of the Tell the Truth movement, a campaign group raided by authorities

Two key opposition figures were prevented from running and threw their weight behind Ms Tikhanovskaya’s campaign.

Noisy defiance as election loom

By Abdujalil Abdurasulov, BBC News, Minsk

The calm streets of Minsk erupted sporadically with the noise of drivers honking their car horns. Some flew a flag with a red stripe on the white background – the symbol used by the opposition.

Rejection of votes is dangerous in Belarus, but activists are making quite a noise despite a crackdown. People can even be arrested for playing the wrong music, as happened with two DJs at a government-sponsored event in Minsk earlier this week.

It is this opposition that makes the election as unpredictable as at least the most challenging for Alexander Lukashenko.

More than 2,000 people have been arrested since the start of the election campaign in May, according to Human Rights Center Viasna.

Early voting began on August 4 and surveillance groups say their volunteers were often prevented from observing the mood and even arrested.

Rumors have spread that the government will close mobile networks on Sunday to hide massive falsification of the results.

What else happens?

Last month, Belarus arrested more than 30 Russian nationals and accused them of violent protests against members of the opposition.

Russia has denied the allegations in a statement issued Friday stating “Similar, baseless allegations concerning Russia’s intelligence have been made more than once.

Despite the apparent rift, some analysts say Russia wants to win over President Lukashenko, but is weakened by the vote, forcing him into closer ties.

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Three Russian opposition activists were arrested on Saturday as they traveled to Belarus to observe the vote, the Open Russia group said.

Anger against Mr Lukashenko’s government is fueled in part by the response to coronavirus.

The president has downplayed the outbreak, advising citizens to drink vodka and use saunas to fight the disease.

Belarus, with a population of 9.5 million, has had nearly 70,000 confirmed cases and 600 deaths.