AAlexander Lukashenko revealed this Sunday that he will run again for the presidency of Belarus in 2025.
“Tell them (the exiled opposition) that I’m going to run,” Lukashenko told journalists, after exercising his right to vote in the parliamentary and municipal elections taking place in the country today, according to the Belarusian state news agency BelTA.
“No one, no responsible president would abandon his people who followed him into battle,” added the 69-year-old Belarusian leader, whose re-election in 2020 led to the biggest anti-government protests in this former Soviet republic.
Remember that Lukashenko has governed Belarus since 1994 and is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies.
Lukashenko, whose re-election in 2020 was not recognized by the West, assured that he will not allow his opponents to carry out a change of power.
“We know how to draw conclusions from our mistakes. So, don’t expect anything”, he assured.
The Belarusian leader added that he could not “leave tomorrow” because it would be a betrayal of the country. However, he admitted that, with one year to go until the next presidential elections, many things “could change.”
On the eve of today’s elections, opposition leader in exile, Svetlana Tikhanovskaia, called for an election boycott.
Belarusian authorities today pointed to a participation rate of 43.64%, at a time when polling stations were still open.
In a reference to the recognition of the ballot, Lukashenko said that Belarus does not need Western approval.
In Washington, the spokesman for the US State Department, Matthew Miller, criticized the Belarusian regime and the electoral “farce” that is taking place today.
“The elections took place in a climate of fear in which no electoral process can be called democratic. The regime holds more than 1,400 political prisoners. All independent political figures have been detained or exiled. And all independent political parties have been denied participation,” indicated the statement from North American diplomacy.
In the same note, Matthew Miller denounced the obligation for Belarusians abroad to only be able to vote if they returned to the country “where they would likely face reprisals” and lamented that the regime had prevented the sending of observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) .
[Notícia atualizada às 19h59]
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Source: https://www.noticiasaominuto.com/mundo/2509009/bielorrussia-lukashenko-revela-recandidatura-a-presidencia-em-2025
