
Yesterday, President Aleksander Lukashenko of Belarus was re-elected for the 7th time. State media reported that the president secured 87.6% of the vote. However the election is widely dismissed as rigged, As with all aspects of elections in Belarus, exit polls are state-controlled and are typically aligned with the officially declared results.
Over the last years, there has been a “widespread and systematic clampdown on civil society organisations in Belarus”, as also noted by GRETA – the Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings – in its second evaluation report on Belarus’s implementation of the Council of Europe Anti-trafficking Convention.
Many human rights organisations have been dissolved. LSI’s member Gender Perspectives was forcibly liquidated by order of the Supreme Court in 2021 and staff members, being prosecuted for their rights activism, had to flee the country. With the current developments support for and solidarity with the Belarusian civil society is of utmost importance.