Early voting began on Jan. 21 in the Belarusian presidential election scheduled for Jan. 26, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
The previous election, held in August 2020, was accompanied by large-scale voting fraud and the largest protests in Belarusian history. Most Western governments refused to recognize the 2020 election results and do not consider Alexander Lukashenko the country's legitimate leader.
Lukashenko, who has been in power in Belarus since 1994, announced last year that he intended to run again in the Jan. 26 presidential election.
Meanwhile, human rights activists call the early election procedure one of the mechanisms of vote rigging, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
Up to 40% of voters usually take part in early voting, and the executive branch determines the number of people who are supposed to participate. Early voting plans are distributed among regions and enterprises, effectively forcing citizens to vote during this period, according to the media outlet.
Elections in Belarus "no longer fulfill their functions but are used by the authoritarian government to show a positive picture of general support and thus legalize the authoritarian government," Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported, citing human rights activists.
Lukashenko claimed victory in the 2020 presidential election, which was widely denounced as rigged in his favor. It was followed by mass protests across the country, which were brutally suppressed by the authorities. Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who leads Belarusian democratic forces in exile, said she had won 60% of the vote.
The Belarusian dictator is also a close ally of Russia and has backed Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, providing Belarusian territory as a staging area for Russian invasion troops in 2022. Russia has also been using Belarus to launch missiles against Ukraine.
Kate Tsurkan
