falsification

The Belarusian authorities ran the elections taking no chances to ensure the maintenance of the political status quo. Opposition candidates who offered even the hint of a threat were not registered, some TV debates were not broadcast to prohibit any advocating of an election boycott, while the traditional manipulation of the vote count and turnout was widespread.

Meanwhile, the...

The 2012 parliamentary election in Belarus is over. The Central Elections Committee announced those who will be in the new parliament.

A typical MP is a non-partisan male aged between 50 and 60. He made his career in state sector - either working for government institutions or in education, culture, science or health care industries. A labour collective usually nominates such a...

The 2012 parliamentary campaign election campaign ended in defeat of all political actors in Belarus.

On the one hand, the Belarusian opposition was unable to mobilise society. On the other hand, the authorities received the expected results from a made up "political depression" which they have themselves created – indeed, very few people turned up at the polling...

The international observers monitoring the parliamentary elections in Belarus present their preliminary post-election statement at a news conference in Minsk. 

The international observation is a common endeavour involving the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and the Parliamentary Assembly. This common endeavour comprises some 330 accredited observers from 37...

Today's parliamentary elections are the simplest for Belarusian election committees. Because the majority of the opposition has boycotted the elections, the election committees have almost no need to rig the votes. In any event, when neither the observers nor even individual members of election committees have access the final count - it is difficult to have unexpected results.

The...

Belarusian authorities do not allow even a minimal level of electoral competition and openly censor opposition candidates in the ongoing parliamentary election campaign. The campaign looks like a staged show in which the incumbent regime only needs to make sure that not even the slightest destabilisation occurs. On 15 September two major Belarusian opposition parties - the...

In 1994 Alexander Lukashenka unexpectedly won the first Belarusian elections. Since that time, measuring his popularly has been difficult for two reasons. First, because since 1994, elections have been neither free nor fair. Second, most of the population has no access to independent media.

In the first and only relatively democratic elections of 1994, Alexander Lukashenka received 44....