Belarus, led since 1994 by President Alexander Lukashenko, will hold presidential elections on 26 January 2025, the Belarusian Electoral Commission announced today.
"The election for the President of the Republic of Belarus will be held on January 26, 2025," the Election Commission reported on the social network Telegram.
Through the social network X, the leader of the Belarusian opposition in exile, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, reacted immediately to the official announcement, affirming that the ballot will be a "mock election", "without a real electoral process" and that it will be conducted "in a climate of terror".
"No alternative candidates or observers will be allowed. We call on Belarusians and the international community to reject this farce," the opposition leader added.
The last presidential elections in Belarus, in 2020, gave rise to unprecedented demonstrations in the country, a recognized ally of Russia.
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in the capital Minsk and other cities in the country to challenge Lukashenko's re-election, considered fraudulent. The protest movement would be harshly repressed by the Lukashenko Government.
Since then, the Belarusian government has led a ruthless crackdown on all dissent, leading hundreds of thousands of people to flee abroad, especially to neighboring Poland.
According to the non-governmental organization (NGO) of human rights Viasna, 1,300 people are currently "unjustly detained" in Belarus for having demonstrated their opposition to the government or for other issues with political links.
One of the leaders of the 2020 protest movement, Maria Kolesnikova, was sentenced to 11 years in prison and faces serious health problems. The family members of Maria Kolesnikova have no news of the opponent since February 2023.
Also Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, exiled in Lithuania, has no news of her husband, Sergei Tikhanovsky, also detained.
Belarus is a close and traditional ally of Moscow, but refrains from participating directly in the Russian offensive in Ukraine launched on February 24, 2022.
However, it ceded its territory to the Russian army for the initial attack and, in agreement with Kiev, allowed its airfields to be used so that Russia could carry out the bombings in Ukraine.
During a review of Russian nuclear doctrine at the end of September, President Vladimir Putin assured that the Russian army would protect Belarus with its nuclear weapons "in case of aggression" against Minsk.
Russia installed tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus during the summer of 2023, a new sign of diplomatic and military closeness between the two countries.
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