International vote observers on Monday condemned parliamentary elections in Belarus as lacking in competition and said potential candidates were denied the right to speak organize and run for office. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe OSCE said in its assessment of Sunday s election that the vote did not meet international standards. The main opposition parties had boycotted the election to protest the detention of political prisoners and opportunities for election fraud. Only deputies supporting the policies of Lukashenko won seats in the 110-seat legislature. This election was not competitive from the start said Matteo Mecacci leader of the OSCE s short-term observer mission. A free election depends on people being free to speak organise and run for office and we didn t see that in this campaign Mecacci told a news conference in the capital Minsk. Antonio Milososki head of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights told reporters that observers were not given a meaningful opportunity to observe the count. Belarus parliament has long been considered a rubber-stamp body for Lukashenko s policies. He has ruled the former Soviet nation since 1994 and Western observers have criticised all recent elections in Belarus as undemocratic. Local independent observers estimated the overall turnout as being almost 19 percent lower than the official 74.3 percent figure. At least 20 independent election observers were detained according to rights activists. Lukashenko s landslide win in a 2010 presidential election triggered a mass street protest that was brutally suppressed. Some of the 700 people arrested at that protest are still in jail including presidential candidate Nikolai Stankevich. Opposition politicians have cautioned supporters to refrain from holding protest rallies this time. The opposition had hoped to use this election to build support but 33 of 35 candidates from the United Civil Party were barred from television while the state-owned press refused to publish their election programmes. A second opposition party the Belarusian Popular Front also boycotted the vote. The United States and the European Union have imposed economic and travel sanctions on the Belarusian government over its crackdown on opposition groups and independent news media. EU foreign ministers are due to hold talks next month on political freedoms in Belarus. They are expected to consider possible revisions to sanctions against the country aimed at more specifically targeting those in the leadership deemed responsible for the political crackdown.

• published: 31 Oct 2013
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