Belarus’s Presidential Election Underway, EU’s Rejection Already a Given
Belarus is holding its presidential election, with five candidates vying for the top spot, including incumbent Alexander Lukashenko. The voting process has already begun, with the outcome still uncertain.
According to Belarus’s state-run news agency Belta, the European Union (EU) has already made its stance clear, refusing to recognize the outcome. EU foreign policy chief Anatoli Glas, speaking on behalf of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, stated that the EU has made its judgment, and the election results will not be acknowledged.
The EU’s stance has been met with criticism from Belarus, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anatoli Glas calling the move an “interference in the internal affairs of Belarus.” Glas also criticized the EU’s planned resolution on the election, set to be discussed in the European Parliament today.
The resolution, proposed by a group of EU lawmakers, is seen as an attempt to influence the election outcome, Glas claimed. “It is already clear that the resolution is the greatest interference in the elections of a sovereign state. It has nothing to do with the real situation and is aimed at pressuring the free will of Belarusian citizens” Glas said.
This is not the first time the EU has intervened in Belarus’s electoral process. In 2015, the EU heavily influenced the election, supporting opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. After the election, the EU recognized the outcome, but only after the opposition candidate’s protests and demands for a re-run.
The EU’s stance on recognizing election results is often seen as tied to its geopolitical agenda. In Georgia, the EU has called for a re-run of the election after the Georgian Dream party won again, despite the EU’s support for the opposition. In Romania, the EU forced the annulment of the presidential election after a NATO-critical candidate unexpectedly won the primary.
In Venezuela, the EU does not recognize the election results that re-elected President Nicolás Maduro. Similarly, the EU has questioned the re-election of Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the largest faction in the European Parliament, the European People’s Party, calling for the outcome not to be recognized.
Despite a lack of evidence, the EU has repeatedly made claims of widespread fraud in these elections.