‘Re-appointment of Lukashenko by Lukashenko himself’ Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya condemns upcoming presidential vote in Belarus
The presidential election called for January 2025 in Belarus will be the “reappointment of Lukashenko by Lukashenko himself,” exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said during a panel at the Halifax International Security Forum on Saturday.
Aleksandr Lukashenko, who has led Belarus for the last 30 years, announced plans to seek a seventh presidential term back in February. Tsikhanouskaya ran against Lukashenko during the last presidential election in 2020, sparking the biggest anti-government protest movement in the country’s history. The government responded with a large-scale crackdown on dissent that forced tens of thousands of Belarusians to flee abroad, including Tsikhanouskaya herself.
Commenting on the upcoming vote in Belarus, Tsikhanouskaya underscored that this will only be an election in name. “We all understand that in dictatorships, this ‘event’ dictators are holding is a circus, it’s imitation, it’s ritual, but it has nothing in common with elections. In our case, it will be the reappointment of Lukashenko by Lukashenko himself,” she said.
Of the six nominal opposition candidates registered ahead of the 2025 vote, two have already dropped out of the race and publicly endorsed Lukashenko. Commenting on the lack of genuine challengers on the ballot, Russian opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, who moderated the panel in Halifax, said Lukashenko “learned his lesson” after allowing Tsikhanouskaya to run in 2020.
Tsikhanouskaya also warned that the Belarusian authorities are trying “to destroy” any remnants of dissent inside the country ahead of the vote. “The repressions we’ve been going through for four years have intensified. We see how the KGB [the Belarusian security services] and the OMON [riot police] are already practicing how to suppress any uprising,” Tsikhanouskaya said, adding that Lukashenko’s recent threat to shut down the Internet in order to prevent protests is “a sign that he feels very fragile.”
“Lukashenko is still afraid because he sees that Belarusian people are not giving up,” Tsikhanouskaya said, pointing to the organizational efforts of those living in exile. “We restored our media, we restored our civil society [abroad], and we have many networks of volunteers inside the country who provide us with information. [There are] people inside Lukashenko’s system who are leaking insight for us, so he is afraid of being betrayed constantly.”
At the same time, Tsikhanouskaya acknowledged that people inside Belarus are unlikely to protest the 2025 vote openly, given the regime’s preparedness to suppress dissent. “I don’t want people to sacrifice in vain,” she said.
These so-called elections will not change anything politically for the Belarusian people. Lukashenko will not become legitimate in the eyes of Belarusians and I see consensus among our democratic partners that they will not recognize him [as president], that they will not return to business as usual. But we have to create more pressure.
Tsikhanouskaya expressed concerns that the plight of political prisoners and ongoing repression in Belarus have become normalized on the international stage. “We have to remind the world that these things are happening and that it’s not normal,” she said.
Belarusian citizens living abroad are still under threat of transnational repressions, ranging from physical threats to problems renewing their documents, Tsikhanouskaya added. “We can’t renew our passports because embassies are blocked from doing their job. And very soon we will have at least half a million stateless [Belarusian] people,” she warned.
Asked her advice for voters inside Belarus, Tsikhanouskaya urged those who are forced to take part to vote “against all” (a ballot option Russian voters “haven’t had in years,” Kara-Murza pointed out). “The regime forcefully makes people go to the polling stations, so we’re asking people to [vote] against all candidates,” she explained. “If people want to boycott — boycott. Because nobody is going to count people, nobody is going to count votes, so it’s senseless.”
Tsikhanouskaya also urged democratic countries to back Lithuania’s recent request to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate alleged crimes against humanity committed by Lukashenko’s government. “I’m really waiting for big, powerful countries to support small Lithuania in this case; to show that you’re not looking to see what Putin or other dictators will say,” she said. “Don’t let dictators feel impunity.”
Story by Eilish Hart
Cover photo credit: Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya speaks at the federal party conference of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen. November 25, 2023.