Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will not be the country’s legitimate leader after Sunday’s event that should not be called elections, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda has said.
“Let’s make it perfectly clear: what is happening in Belarus today cannot be called elections. Once again, Alyaksandr Lukashenka is using external attributes of democracy to stay in power. But he is not – and will not be after today’s event – a legitimate president of Belarus,” Nausėda posted on X on Sunday.
He called for democratic reforms in Belarus, as well as for the release of all political prisoners, and to “stop assisting Russia’s war against Ukraine”.
“We will keep on supporting Belarusian civil society in its efforts to build for their country a democratic future in united Europe,” the Lithuanian president said.
According to him, the people of Belarus deserve to elect their leaders in free and fair elections, to be free from mass surveillance, lawlessness, and intimidation, and also “to live in a country free from humiliating political, economic, and military subordination to Russia”.
For his part, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys has called on the European Union to continue isolating the Belarusian regime and further tighten the existing sanctions.
“The regime’s grip has tightened even further since August 2020, with the power structures constantly and systematically using violence against civil society, the media and the opposition. Subjugated by Lukashenko, Belarus has become a staging ground for Russian military operations and is directly contributing to the aggression against Ukraine,” Budrys was quoted as saying in the statement.
“Law is not born out of lawlessness,” he added.
It is important to focus on holding the Lukashenko regime accountable for crimes against humanity, Budrys stressed.
Belarus held a presidential election on Sunday, four and a half years after mass protests erupted across the country over allegations of vote rigging.
In the absence of a real contest, Lukashenko announced that he was re-elected president of the country with 87.6 percent of the vote.
Lukashenko has ruled Belarus, which is an important ally of Russia, since 1994. He has suppressed opposition, imprisoned hundreds of critics and protesters and continued the crackdown to this day.
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