Monitors attack widespread flaws in Belarus poll

A REFERENDUM which allowed Europe’s “last dictator” — Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko — to run for another term suffered widespread violations, election observers and opposition figures said yesterday.

Lukashenko, aged 50, who has run the former Soviet republic of 10 million with an iron hand since his first election in 1994, shrugged off the criticism and said the results of Sunday's vote to scrap presidential term limits showed he has the people's trust.

"I'm pleased with these results," Lukashenko said. "Our 10 year work has received a high appraisal."

Lukashenko, often branded Europe's last dictator, has not said whether he would run again when his second term expires in September 2006, but he is widely thought to want to hold on to power.

Central Elections Commission Chairwoman Lidiya Ermoshina announced yesterday that a preliminary tally showed that more than 77% of registered voters approved dropping the term limits and that nationwide turnout was nearly 90%.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe said the vote in which Belarussians also cast votes to fill the largely powerless 110 seat House of Representatives fell "significantly short" of democratic norms.

Lukashenko's opponents protested at a government-endorsed exit poll showing the measure passing, which was broadcast repeatedly on state television while polls were still open. Although Belarussian law prohibits exit poll results from being announced until voting is over, Ermoshina insisted that election laws were not violated.

Another exit poll, conducted by the independent Gallup Organisation/Baltic Surveys, had only 48.45% of 37,602 respondents saying they voted to scrap presidential term limits, short of the simple majority needed for the measure to pass.

Ermoshina dismissed the independent poll's results as lacking credibility.

Opposition leaders said their observers were barred from some voting stations and denied the right to ensure no one tampered with ballot boxes.

Former Czech President Vaclav Havel also criticised the referendum and Lukashenko's government.

"This is the last European, truly dictatorial regime," said the former playwright who led the 1989 Velvet Revolution that peacefully toppled communism in then Czechoslovakia.

"Lukashenko won by the vote count, but he lost the faith of hundreds of thousands of people," said Anatoly Lebedko, the head of the United Civil Party.