‘Europe’s last dictator’ takes no election chances

WITH media under tight control, parliament in his pocket, the opposition persecuted and powerful Russia on his side, no one doubts Alexander Lukashenko will be proclaimed the winner of Belarus’s presidential election.

The question is what comes afterward. The opposition has pledged protests if it judges the election a fraud, and the authorities have banned any such demonstrations.

Mr Lukashenko, branded “Europe’s last dictator” by Western governments, has packed parliament with his loyalists and thrown opposition figures in jail. At the same time, he has rejected international calls for an independent investigation into the disappearances of four government opponents several years ago.