I am staring into the eyes of Vladimir Lenin, the Russian revolutionary who based the Soviet Union.
It appears like I’ve travelled again in time. In reality, I’ve come to the headquarters of the Communist Celebration of Belarus.
An enormous portrait of Lenin dominates the room wherein I am interviewing Sergei Syrankov, the social gathering chief. He’s one among 5 candidates in Sunday’s presidential election.
It appears Lenin is not the one chief he admires. Presidential incumbent Alexander Lukashenko seems to have achieved hero standing too.
“We name him Bat’ka,” says Sergei Syrankov, referring to Belarusians’ affectionate nickname for the 70-year-old, which means ‘father’.
“Bat’ka will not be solely the individual we now have to thank for a kid’s start, Bat’ka will even feed the kid, shield them, get them on their ft, and create all of the circumstances for his or her growth and confidence of their future.”
It says so much about an election, and a rustic, {that a} candidate endorses his rival slightly than criticises him.
However this isn’t a traditional election. The winner will not be unsure.
After 31 years in energy, Lukashenko is ready for a seventh consecutive time period, despite the fact that he is not campaigning.
On a current manufacturing unit go to, he advised employees that he did not have time for it, claiming he is too busy working for the nation.
Others are nonetheless canvassing for votes, nevertheless, giving the phantasm of alternative.
Outdoors an upmarket buying centre in downtown Minsk, the Belarusian capital, we meet Anna Kanopatskaya, who’s working as an impartial.
She and a handful of supporters are doing their finest to distribute leaflets, asking passers-by for his or her vote.
However even this supposed- opposition candidate struggles to search out fault with Bat’ka after I ask what’s fallacious together with his management.
“What’s fallacious?” Ms Kanopatskaya repeats, sounding stunned.
“Presumably you suppose one thing’s fallacious with it if you wish to exchange him,” I counsel.
The 5 election candidates are ‘like a fan membership of Lukashenko’, says exiled opposition chief Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya
After some hesitation, she replies “To begin with, he is not so younger and he is not such an efficient and progressive a supervisor”, earlier than rapidly including that generally he’s “very profitable”.
By guaranteeing his rivals double up as supporters, Lukashenko has clearly learnt his lesson after the final election in 2020 triggered days of mass protests.
He was accused of stealing victory from the opposition and the wave of unrest that adopted almost swept him from energy.
It was solely after a brutal crackdown, wherein tens of hundreds have been detained, that he regained management.
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Opposition chief Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has been in exile ever since. Talking to Sky Information on the World Financial Discussion board in Davos this week, she known as for Belarusians to boycott Sunday’s ballot.
“Will probably be like an imitation. Will probably be a farce. Will probably be just like the reappointment of a dictator by a dictator,” she stated.
“All these 5 people who find themselves taking part, it is like a fan membership of Lukashenko.”
These not within the fan membership are both too afraid to talk out or have already been silenced by prolonged jail phrases.
Some opposition figures have been launched in current months, in an indication Lukashenko could wish to rekindle relations with the West. However there’s a lengthy solution to go earlier than he can declare Belarus is freed from repression.
In response to human rights teams, greater than 1,200 political prisoners stay behind bars.
