TALLINN, Estonia — (AP) — Belarus' election commission on Monday allowed seven politicians loyal to President Alexander Lukashenko to start collecting signatures to run against him in January's election, in an apparent bid to create a semblance of competition to the longtime authoritarian ruler.
Lukashenko, who has ruled the country for more than 30 years, is seeking a seventh term following a relentless crackdown on the opposition and free media.
The election, scheduled for Jan. 26, would come 4 1/2 years after the 2020 presidential vote that was rejected by the opposition and the West as rigged with fraud and triggered massive nationwide protests. Belarusian authorities responded to the demonstrations with a sweeping crackdown on dissent, resulting in about 65,000 people arrested.
Major opposition figures were either imprisoned or fled the country in the crackdown. Human rights activists say Belarus now holds about 1,300 political prisoners and that many of them are denied adequate medical care and contact with their families.
Lukashenko has relied on subsidies and political support from his main ally, Russia, to survive the protests. He allowed Moscow to use Belarusian territory to send troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
Last week, Belarus' Central Election Commission registered an initiative group for Lukashenko to prepare for the race. On Monday, it also permitted seven politicians to begin collecting signatures to be able to run, including Sergei Syrankov of the Communist Party, Oleg Gaidukevich, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, and former Interior Ministry spokeswoman Olga Chеmоdanova.
“Those are alternative candidates, and I believe they just want to safeguard the incumbent,” Lukashenko said of his aspiring token challengers.
Each of the candidates is required to collect at least 100,000 signatures until Dec. 6 to enter the race.
Last week, the commission refused to register initiative groups for two opposition politicians who aspired to enter the race.
“There are candidates, but no competition in this election,” said Valery Karbalevich, an independent political analyst. “Lukashenko fears a replay of the 2020 protests, his trauma is still fresh and so he will carry out the vote in a format when the result is predetermined.”
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who is in exile after challenging Lukashenko in the 2020 presidential election, denounced January's vote as a farce and urged Belarusians to vote against all candidates.
“We are offering people to voice their protest by voting against all those who are robbing us of our right to vote,” said Tsikhanouskaya, whose husband Siarhei Tsikhanouski is serving a 19 1/2-year prison sentence after trying to run against Lukashenko. “This is not an election but an imitation of an electoral process held amid terror when alternative candidates and observers aren't allowed.”
During February's parliamentary and local elections, in which only candidates loyal to Lukashenko were allowed to compete, Belarus for the first time also refused to invite observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to monitor the vote.