On January 26, Belarusians will go to the polls for “presidential elections,” an event seen by many as a “sham,” a “no-choice election” (bezvybory), and little more than a ritual for Aliaksandr Lukashenka, who has been president of Belarus for more than three decades.
The last presidential elections, held in 2020, resulted in country-wide protests against what was widely perceived as a rigged ballot. The authorities’ response to these protests was brutal: tens of thousands people faced arbitrary detention, with estimates of over 6,500 prosecuted, and torture and other ill-treatment was widespread. Three-and-a-half years later, politically motivated repression is still raging.
To secure “victory” in the upcoming 2025 elections, Lukashenka has completely wiped out any credible political opposition in Belarus. All candidates who attempted to run against him in 2020 are either serving lengthy prison sentences on trumped-up charges or have been forced into exile. And in 2023, authorities forced all political parties in Belarus to re-register, effectively allowing them to liquidate 12 parties, leaving only four that are loyal to the government. The European Parliament has denounced the opposition candidates running in the presidential elections as government pawns.
Also, in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential elections, authorities cracked down on domestic, independent observers in reprisal for exposing corruption and violations. Belarusian civil society and human rights organizations were dismantled by the authorities or forced underground.
Indeed, the 2025 elections will not be monitored by independent observers, such as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s (OSCE) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, a key international observer of elections in the region, whom the Belarusian government failed to invite, in breach of their OSCE commitments.
Also in a change to past elections, when Belarusian citizens living abroad were allowed to vote, the government has made sure that hundreds of thousands of Belarusians living in exile and critical of the government cannot vote due to an alleged “lack of security” and “low voter turnout” overseas.
According to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Belarus, Nils Muižnieks, the current human rights situation in Belarus does not allow for political competition nor pluralism, the essence of free elections.
The upcoming elections in Belarus will take place amid raging repression, in a country where people cannot exercise their rights to freedom of thought, expression, information, or association and assembly. The international community cannot treat them as free and fair and should send a clear signal to Lukashenka that the country’s dire human rights situation will be closely monitored both around and after January 26.