Thread: Elections in Belarus

Officially - there was no cheating and no violations. But you just need to see how it was

There are a lot of interest things to say but I'll try to show how it was in couple of words.
First interest thing - it's a "early voting" (досрочное голосование) - it's a several days before main elections when people votes voluntary-compulsory (добровольно-принудительно) i.e. you may not vote but if you are student, soldier, state employee or anybody other who depend governance - they'll tell you "you'll have a problems if you'll not vote early". For example, if you are student and you are living in hostel - you could be excluded (I've lived in hostel and I know this authentically). I don't say, what could be if you are soldier.
But it's not important for who you'll vote, they need only your sign. During this several days ballot boxes protected only by one policeman and observers have access to them only in day. In the night they stay only with the policeman. Сontinuation think of by self.
So, for election day ~30% electorate already have voted (easy to guess for who). But it's not all. The election day begins.


It's an observers, they are using binoculars because they are really far from election process


and it's an election commission

and...

Votes counting! (Something like this observer sees)

After this simple manipulations he have >= 80% votes. No cheating, no violations.

BTW, people protested exactly against this "percents" (according to alternative exit-polls Lukashenko has only ~35%), but somebody have broken the door in the government house

Very interesting information! Thanks for explaining.
Who (or what party) would you have preferred win, and why?

35% is still a lot though! They probably would win whether they cheat or not... It depends on whether there is one opposing party (like in the USA) or many (like in most Western European countries).

For example, while I was growing up in Sweden, the Social democrats always won the elections because 35-50% voted for them (approximately) in every election. And if they didn't get a large enough majority on their own, then they invited the communists to form government with them... Which was exactly what their opponents did not want. They were almost unbeatable and many people got very fed up with them. But the opposition could not agree enough to defeat them, and despite what some people thought, it was what they majority preferred.

It seems like if Lukashenko was to be beaten, then everybody who doesn't like him have to vote for just one other party... otherwise he'll just keep winning!

Is there one party that could challenge him in the future? If so what is that party and what do they stand for?

Originally Posted by Hanna

Very interesting information! Thanks for explaining.
Who (or what party) would you have preferred win, and why?

35% is still a lot though! They probably would win whether they cheat or not... It depends on whether there is one opposing party (like in the USA) or many (like in most Western European countries).

For example, while I was growing up in Sweden, the Social democrats always won the elections because 35-50% voted for them (approximately) in every election. And if they didn't get a large enough majority on their own, then they invited the communists to form government with them... Which was exactly what their opponents did not want. They were almost unbeatable and many people got very fed up with them. But the opposition could not agree enough to defeat them, and despite what some people thought, it was what they majority preferred.

It seems like if Lukashenko was to be beaten, then everybody who doesn't like him have to vote for just one other party... otherwise he'll just keep winning!

Is there one party that could challenge him in the future? If so what is that party and what do they stand for?

35% would simply have meant they would have to hold the second voting, and the other candidates (or at least some of them) could have united and created a coalition that would have beaten the dictator.

I think anyone with common sense could challenge him. If you don't think so, you might not have seen all his brilliant speeches, and might not be completely realizing what his regime looks like.