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The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) recommends that the controversial presidential elections in Belarus be annulled and repeated under international observation. This stems from an investigation that was published in Vienna on Thursday night. “Overall, there is overwhelming evidence that the August 9, 2020 presidential election was rigged,” the report says.
In mid-September, the OSCE created a commission of experts to investigate possible electoral fraud and human rights violations in Belarus. The initiative came from 17 states, including France and the US Germany was not among them.
The allegations in relation to serious human rights violations were considered “massive, systematic and unequivocally proven,” said Austrian lawyer Wolfgang Benedek. He has examined more than 700 submissions from Belarusian citizens and groups, as well as reports from UN legal experts and human rights non-governmental organizations.
A statement from the 17 countries said the report confirmed their concerns. As a first step, the Belarusian authorities should now “stop their campaign of violence against peaceful protesters”, release all those unjustly detained and bring those responsible to justice. The government of former Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko did not cooperate with the investigation.
The EU wants to adopt sanctions
The EU also does not recognize Lukashenko’s re-election. Now he wants to impose sanctions on the ruler. The German Bundestag supported the sanctions with a large majority on Wednesday. The MPs condemned Lukashenko’s brutal actions and demanded new free and fair elections.
Since the presidential elections on August 9, Belarus has held protests and strikes against the authoritarian head of state, who has been in power for 26 years. Lukashenko had been declared the winner with 80.1 percent of the votes. The opposition believes that the elections are false.
Over the weekend, more than 100,000 people took to the streets in the capital, Minsk. The security forces reacted with massive violence, shooting people with rubber bullets, using stun grenades and arresting hundreds of opponents of the government. Last week, Lukashenko also closed border crossings with neighboring countries. Meanwhile, the protests have left several dead, hundreds injured and thousands arrested.
The opposition calls on the army to move away from Lukashenko
The opposition views civil rights activist Svetlana Tichanovskaya as the real winner of the elections. On Thursday he asked the military to get away from Lukashenko. “They want to drag them into a war against their own people,” Tichanovskaya and former Culture Minister Pavel Latuschko wrote to the soldiers.
“Lukashenko has run out of resources to stay in power.” Rather, the armed forces must be loyal to the people. He must not obey “criminal orders”, according to the appeal issued by the Telegram news channel.
