Belarus will hold elections on January 26 that will almost certainly extend the rule of its authoritarian leader

TALLINN – Lawmakers in Belarus on Wednesday set the next presidential election for January 26, a vote that will almost certainly extend the three-decade rule of authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, who has suppressed all political dissent.

Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya was quick to denounce the upcoming elections as a “farce.”

Lukashenko has already said he would seek what would be his seventh consecutive term in office, dating back to 1994, and confirmed this in remarks to Russian state television on Wednesday. His last victory came in the 2020 elections, which were labeled fraudulent by the opposition and the West.

That sparked an unprecedented wave of mass protests, and his government responded with a violent crackdown, arresting and beating thousands. Opposition leaders have since been jailed or forced to flee the country.

Tsikhanouskaya, who ran against Lukashenko in 2020, urged Belarusians and the world not to recognize the upcoming elections amid the ongoing political crackdown.

“Lukashenko has set the date for his ‘re-election’ on January 26, but it is a sham without a real election process taking place in an atmosphere of terror,” Tsikhanouskaya told The Associated Press in a statement. “We urge Belarusians and the international community to reject this farce.”

According to Viasna, Belarus’ oldest and most prominent human rights organization, there are about 1,300 political prisoners in Belarus — including leaders of opposition parties and the group’s founder, Ales Bialiatski, who won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.

Lukashenko has unexpectedly released 115 political prisoners in recent months after the government said they had appealed for leniency and expressed remorse.

Analysts believe he is using the political prisoners issue to gain Western recognition of the election results and ease sanctions on his government.

Lukashenko’s current term expires next summer, but election officials said moving the process to the beginning of the year would allow the president to “exercise his powers in the initial phase of strategic planning.”

But Belarusian political analyst Valery Karbalevich gave another reason for planning a vote earlier this year.

“There will be no mass protests in freezing January,” he said.

Karbalevich said Lukashenko will use this fact and his recent release of political prisoners to start negotiations with the West.

“Lukashenko’s trauma from months of mass protests has still not healed, and it dictates the model of the presidential elections in January without discussions and without choice,” he added.

Belarusian authorities have not said whether they will invite international observers to monitor the vote.

Belarus refused for the first time in decades to allow observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe to observe this year’s parliamentary elections. Under the full control of Lukashenko’s government, for the first time, polling booths had no privacy curtains and voters were not allowed to take photos of their ballots, making it impossible to conduct an independent count.