{"id":11469,"date":"2022-09-05T08:25:24","date_gmt":"2022-09-05T05:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/longreads\/lukasenka-about-to-stop-pretending-he-is-still-popular\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","slug":"lukasenka-about-to-stop-pretending-he-is-still-popular","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11469\/","title":{"rendered":"\u0141uka\u0161enka about to stop pretending he is still popular"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n <span>By Valieryj Karbalevi\u010d<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t * Reproduction prohibited\n<\/p>\n<p>\n <b><span>The Belarusian leader\u2019s suggestion that presidents should be elected at the All-Belarusian People\u2019s Assembly is illustrative of the regime\u2019s onslaught on democracy. Alaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka relies on support of bureaucracy and police violence to keep himself in power.<\/span><\/b>\n<\/p>\n<h2>Universal suffrage is a problem for \u0141uka\u0161enka<\/h2>\n<p>\n\t \u0141uka\u0161enka said on August 30 that he regretted not abolishing universal-suffrage direct presidential elections in favor of elections of presidents at a regular gathering of officials, the so-called All-Belarusian People\u2019s Assembly.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The Assembly was given powers to oversee other branches under the new constitution approved in February at a controversial referendum marred by allegations of massive fraud.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u201cPresidential elections will destabilize the situation,\u201d the Belarusian leader said.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u201cDoes [Chinese President] Xi Jinping, who is elected at the National People\u2019s Congress today, have no authority? He has, more than me and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin combined,\u201d he argued. \u201cI was afraid that we would take away the people\u2019s right. But today I feel that we should have lived that life. We would have gone through it&nbsp;to work peacefully. And the parliament would have been elected in constituencies. We have missed it, but this is not a disaster. We will return to it, if necessary, but not now. Maybe it is not us who will go back to it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The remarks are illustrative of the erosion of Belarus, which was a democracy when he was first elected in 1994, during his rule.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t For 26 years onwards, \u0141uka\u0161enka always boasted that he was elected and supported by the people.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t State-propaganda branded him \u201ca president elected by the people\u201d and \u201ca popular president.\u201d The Belarusian ruler misused that popular mandate \u2013 he used to describe Belarusians as the simplest people who would never betray their leader \u2013 to build an authoritarian system.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Now universal suffrage is a problem for him. He relies on support of bureaucracy, violence and security services to hold on to power. He has questioned voters\u2019 right to elect presidents and wants it delegated to the All-Belarusian People\u2019s Assembly.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u0141uka\u0161enka clearly understands that he cannot win a free and fair election. He has in fact admitted that he is afraid of honest elections and that his rule is based on the use of force against voters.\n<\/p>\n<h2>Visa restrictions and collective responsibility<\/h2>\n<p>\n\t After heated debates about whether Belarusians and Russians are liable for actions of their governments, the European Union (EU) foreign ministers on August 31 agreed to suspend a visa facilitation agreement with Russia, but rejected a proposal for a blanket ban.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Several eastern EU countries that border Russia and Belarus are expected to impose further restrictions that are likely to make it harder for Russians, and Belarusians as well, to enter the bloc.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Minsk pulled out of an EU visa facilitation deal last year by denouncing a readmission treaty with the EU amid a self-engineered migrant crisis.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t However, Brussels has not suspended the visa facilitation agreement with Belarus in a move that emphasizes that it considers Russians primarily responsible for the war in Ukraine and that it clearly sees the difference in public sentiment in the two countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Valieryj Karbalevi\u010d * Reproduction prohibited The Belarusian leader\u2019s suggestion that presidents should be elected at the All-Belarusian People\u2019s Assembly is illustrative of the regime\u2019s onslaught on democracy. Alaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka relies on support of bureaucracy and police violence to keep himself in power. Universal suffrage is a problem for \u0141uka\u0161enka \u0141uka\u0161enka said on August 30 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[22],"class_list":["post-11469","longreads","type-longreads","status-publish","hentry","rubric-theviewer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u0141uka\u0161enka about to stop pretending he is still popular | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Valieryj Karbalevi\u010d * Reproduction prohibited The Belarusian leader\u2019s suggestion that presidents should be elected at the All-Belarusian People\u2019s\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11469\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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