Belarusian President Lukashenko faces toughest opposition to his 26-year rule ahead of Sunday's vote, with discontent over worsening economy and government's response to Covid-19
A woman casts her ballot at a polling station during early voting ahead of Sunday's election in the western city of Lida, Belarus, August 7, 2020.
Rumblings among the ruling elite and a bitter rift with Russia, Belarus's main sponsor and ally, compound the reelection challenge facing the 65-year-old former state farm director on Sunday. “They were telling us that the virus doesn't exist and dismissed it as "psychosis" while tens of thousands of Belarusians have gotten sick," said Diana Golubovich, 54, a lawyer who attended Tsikhanouskaya's rally in Brest, a city on the border with Poland. “Suddenly everyone realised that the social-oriented state that Lukashenko was boasting about doesn't exist.”
“Lukashenko lacks a plan to modernise the country. He has taken political freedoms away, and now he is depriving people of a chance for economic growth,” said Valery Tsepkalo, a former Belarusian ambassador to the United States who planned to challenge Lukashenko for the presidency butwith his children last month to avoid imminent arrest. “That is the main reason behind protests.”
“No one trusts the government's promises anymore,” said Anton Rubankevich, 46, who makes the equivalent of $480 a month. “If this president stays, we will continue falling into a pit.”Political observers say the election campaign also exposed divisions among the Belarusian elite as some of its members entered politics for the first time.
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