January 12, Pozirk. Opposition leader Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja has called on Belarusians to boycott the upcoming parliamentary elections.
“Do not play the game that the regime imposes. Ignore the ‘no-elections,'” she said in a statement. “By refusing to participate in the sham, you are protesting against the ‘normalcy’ that Łukašenka is building. And that is precisely what the regime fears most.”
Earlier this month, Belarus’ envoy to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights will not be invited to observe the February 25 elections for the House of Representatives and local councils.
By forbidding European observers to monitor the elections, the government of Alaksandar Łukašenka aims to seal the “new normal” in which “thousands of people who oppose the regime are thrown in jail, and the state, in an attempt to maintain power, supports war and daily gives up pieces of its independence to Russia in exchange for loans,” Cichanoŭskaja said.
During the elections, voters will be banned from taking photos of ballots and posting them on the Internet, both during early voting and on the election day. Violators will be punished under the Administrative Offenses Code.
During the 2020 presidential election, many voters photographed their ballots and uploaded them to the online platform Hołas to prove that the authorities’ manipulated the voting results in favor of Łukašenka.
The country has not held a single free and fair election by the OSCE standards since 1996.
