Opposition parties boycott Belarus 'pseudo-elections'

A woman reads posters during an opposition campaign picket to boycott parliamentary elections in Minsk, Belarus, Saturday: photo - EPA/TATYANA ZENKOVICH

One hundred and ten seats are being contested in the first nationwide ballot in Belarus since the disputed presidential elections of December 2010, which most foreign observers, and many Belarusian opposition politicians, regarded as having been rigged in favour of President Lukashenko.

Six opposition parties are boycotting Sunday's parliamentary elections including the country's two largest, United Civic and BPF, with one politician, Anatoly Lebedko, calling the ballot “pseudo-elections for a fake parliament”.

Polish member of the European Parliament and former deputy foreign minister, Pawel Kowal (PJN) told Polish Radio that: “We should be careful using the word 'election' so as not to give the impression that there is any semblance of normality in Belarus”.

The election is “simply a regime-backed installation” he said.

One of the four Polish Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) parliamentary observers at the election, Michał Szczerba, said that he has already heard accusations of vote rigging in the days leading up to the vote today.

“We have information of workers [in state firms] being told about preferred candidates and a massive amount of students being forced by their university to vote early,” the Civic Platform (PO) MP told the TVN 24 news station.

Mikhail Pashkevich, a leader of Tell the Truth, one of the opposition parties still taking part in the election, told the BBC that the results have been determined in advance.

"There are no elections […] in Belarus now, only something like a farce, a play that is named election but is not an election," he said. (pg)