European countries are mostly known for their well-developed economy and their good democracy. In terms of revenue also European countries are leading. But today also one country in Europe is there where dictatorship rule is followed. The country is Belarus. Mostly known as last remaining dictator of Europe. From past couple of days news are flashing about this country. Its citizens have woken up and they are in a demand of finishing up the dictatorship from their country.
Belarus – A small country situated in eastern Europe and is situated between Ukraine and Russia. The country got independence from Soviet Union in 1991. In the year 1994. Belarus adopted a new Constitution which declared this country as democratic, social and republic. Many freedoms were also granted like freedom of speeches, freedom of press etc. The legislative, executive and judiciary were given absolute powers to work on.
So according to the Constitution of 1994, Belarus was a democratic and liberal country. In this year, a free and fair election was conducted, and a politician named Alexander Lukashenko was elected as the President of the country. He was the first ever President in Belarus. Before him no one was elected. Ans he has been ruling the country till date. No one even after him was elected. He is the sole dictator of Belarus.
How Alexander Lukashenko became dictator?
After two years of getting elected as the President, in the year 1996 he got a referendum conducted which was considered as a fraud referendum and the public was not really asked about their opinion. Based on that referendum, he passed certain constitutional reforms.
The rules and regulations were changed in such a way that the President was passed on the major power and the Prime Minister had of almost negligible power. The PM became a subordinate of the President. The powers of legislation and passing bills were transferred to the President. Basically, Lukashenko made himself more powerful than anyone else in the country. After 1996, all the elections were fraud and Lukashenko was elected as the President every time. The election held in 1994 was the only free and fair election in the history of Belarus.
History of Belarus
After Independence, Belarus did not have the proper growth in terms of economy. The private sectors participation in the GDP of the country was 20-30%. Belarus with strong relations with Russia happen to run the country. In other words, one can say that Russia controls the economy of Belarus. And the history says that Belarus had a very bad sign of economy. In the year 2011, the inflation in
Belarus went to 109% due to financial mismanagement. During 2016, the GDP growth rate was running negative. Even today Belarus faces a high rise of unemployment. From all other aspects too, Belarus is very bad. Lukashenko has almost total control over the media. In fact, a media company called Memo 98 revealed that in between May-June 2020, 97% of media coverage was given to Lukashenko. All other opposition were given a mere 30 second coverage.
It’s been heard that Lukashenko could not tolerate any kind of criticism. Once in an open platform he told that anyone who would participate in the protest of opposition would be treated as terrorist. He projects himself as a very nationalistic personality and oppositions as foreign aliens or terrorists. Even the media projects the same. From the year 2010, many people tried to contest against Lukashenko but then whoever tried doing so either was put behind the bars with some false charges or had to leave the country.
2020 Elections in Belarus
9th August 2020, President elections were held in Belarus. Lukashenko who served the country for five consecutive terms as President contested for the 6th term. This time the rate of opposition he faced was not there in any other elections before. There were three main oppositions against him. The first was Victor Babaryko who was booked in charges of money laundering. Second was Valery Tsekalo who was told that he cannot contest because he has not collected 1 lacs signatures. According to some bureaucratic rules he was disqualified from contesting. The third was Sergei Tikhanovski who was the main opposition candidate. He is a youtuber and he talks about farmers and many real times issues the country has been facing. He mostly explains the reality of the country. Even he was arrested for protesting Lukashenko.
All three candidates were barred from contesting against Lukashenko. After clearing all the hurdles from the way, Lukashenko thought that now everything is fine. But then something happened which he would never have imagined. Svetlana Tikhanovski, the wife of Sergei TIkhanovski who is a school teacher came forward stating that since her husband is in jail for some reasons, she want to fight the election.
30th July 2020, some 10 days before election, Svetlana Tikhanovski managed to attract tens of thousands of people in her rally. And with times lakhs of people came in support of her. Even the jailed opposition candidates extended their support to her. On the other hand, even thousands of people were hard to be attracted towards the rally of Lukashenko. This was kind of a revolution taking place in Belarus.
It was very clear that Lukashenko would go to any extend to win the election. 9th August 2020, no independent observer was invited to oversee the elections. In addition to that opinion polls were totally banned. Usually in any election opinion polls were conducted to figure out that where is people’s mind inclined. What could be the outcome? But that too was banned in Belarus.
On the election day, complete internet was blacked out which was in continuation for few more days. And finally, with no surprise on 10th August 2020, when the election results came out, Lukashenko won with a majority of 80% vote shares. And Svetlana had some mere 10 % vote shares. Svetlana stated that if fair elections would have conducted, then she would have received 60-70% vote shares. In fact, European Union, UK and USA openly stated that there were a lot of frauds committed in the election. And EU stated that it would declare sanctions against Belarus due to fraud election.
Soon after the election results came out, Svetlana fled to a neighboring country called Lithuania. There she conducted a press conference and stated that her life is in danger and she is much worried about her children. She never wanted to contest elections and conduct political rallies. The only reason that made her do so was because her husband is in jail. She also stated that she took a very difficult decision in flying to Lithuania for her children.
Slipper Revolution or anti cockroach Revolution
By this time, people of Belarus are upset with Lukashenko. Mr Sergei Tikhanovski who was a youtuber always called Lukashenko a cockroach and he should be thrown out with a slipper. And considering his words many people initiated a peaceful protest. And the consequences which they had to face were very tough. Granades, tear gases, water balloons were all thrown at the crowd by the police.
Some 7000 people were also arrested within 3 days and were kept in jail without food and water. Situation has become so worse that the government workers also joined the protests. Some of the loyal supporters also stopped coming to work. They too joined the protest. 17th August 2020, when Lukashenko was going to give his speech in a wheel tractor plant had to face the audience in a very angry mood. They openly started booing him.
Many media people who were supporting Lukashenko also stared resigning from their posts and joined the protests. Government workers also joined the protests. Amidst all these, Russian President Putin came forward to extend support to Lukashenko. He even agreed to extend military support to Belarus to control the protest if required. He had a fear in his mind that if Lukashenko came down to power, tomorrow Russia could also face the same and Putin would have to step down from his dictatorship. Somewhere Putin also has a fear that if he would have to support Lukashenko, the citizens of Belarus could go against him. So, in total Putin is in big confusion and is not in a state of mind to think what to do.
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