Sawt Falasteen - Belarusians vote in election to extend Lukashenko's 30-year rule

Lukashenko -- a 70-year-old former collective farm boss -- has been in power in reclusive, Moscow-allied Belarus since 1994.

Speaking after casting his vote in the capital Minsk, the self-avowed "dictator" dismissed critics of his rule and said he could release political prisoners as long as they asked him for a pardon.

Lukashenko suppressed mass protests against his rule after the last election in 2020. He has since allowed Moscow to use Belarusian territory to invade Ukraine in 2022.

All of Lukashenko's political opponents are either in prison -- some held incommunicado -- or in exile along with hundreds of thousands of Belarusians who have fled since 2020.

Exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who ran against Lukashenko in 2020, dismissed Sunday's vote as a "farce".

"What is happening in Belarus today is a farce," she told reporters in Warsaw, branding Lukashenko "a criminal who has seized power" and calling for the release of all political prisoners and free and far elections.

In a rambling press conference, Lukashenko called his country a "brutal democracy" and said "we don't put pressure on anyone and we won't silence anyone".

He also dismissed the idea of speaking to exiled opponents like Tikhanovskaya.

"What would I have to talk to them about?" he said.

He said exiles had made their own choices, adding that "we didn't push anyone out of the country".

Thousands fled Belarus in 2020 and 2021 as authorities embarked on a huge crackdown, with more than 1,000 people now in prison.

- Belarusians value 'peace' -

Most people in Belarus have only distant memories of life in the landlocked country before Lukashenko, who was 39 when he won the first national election in Belarus since it gained independence from the Soviet Union.

Criticism of the strongman is banned in Belarus. Most people AFP spoke to in Minsk and other towns voiced support for him.

The other candidates running against Lukashenko have been picked to give the election an air of democracy and few know who they are.

In Minsk, 74-year-old pensioner Nadezhda Guzhalovskaya, who described herself as a "patriot", voted for Lukashenko due to a lack of other options.

"Maybe everything here is not perfect, we don't have democracy," admitted Guzhalovskaya.

But Irina Lebedeva said that "thanks to our president there is peace in this country," repeating the government's narrative, which also accuses the 2020 street protest leaders of sowing chaos.

- Reliant on Russia -

The United Nations estimates that some 300,000 Belarusians have left the country since 2020 -- mostly to Poland and Lithuania -- out of a population of nine million.

They will not be able to cast ballots, with Belarus having scrapped voting abroad.

In the run-up to the election, the Lukashenko administration pardoned around 200 political prisoners.

But former prisoners AFP spoke to say those released are under the close watch of security services and are unable to lead a normal life.

Nobel Prize winner Ales Bialiatski is among those in prison in Belarus.

While Lukashenko once carefully balanced his relations between the European Union and Moscow, since 2020 he has become politically and economically reliant on Russia.

Kaja Kallas, the EU's top diplomat, called the election a "sham" in a posting on X on Saturday and said "Lukashenko doesn't have any legitimacy".

Lukashenko on Sunday said he was not bothered whether or not other countries would recognise the result of the election, saying "it is a matter of taste".

Known as "Europe's last dictator" -- a nickname he embraces -- Lukashenko's Belarus has retained much of the Soviet Union's traditions and infrastructure.

At his press conference on Sunday, he dismissed rumours that he was planning to hand over to one of his three sons.

He said his youngest son Nikolai "could not imagine in his worst dream" that he could be president and "none of my sons could".

He said it was up to a "new generation" to take over, with the strongman -- who has promoted a macho image of himself -- saying a woman should not lead Belarus.

"It's not a job for a woman. I'm totally against a woman doing this job. A woman can't be a dictator but we have quite a few men who could be leaders," he said.

C.Hamad--SF-PST