OSCE: Belarus elections better, but still flawed

Two opposition candidates have won mandates in Belarus' 110-seat parliament - becoming the first government opponents to join the legislature since 2008.

Anna Kanapatskaya of the opposition United Civil Party and Alena Anisim of the Belarusian Language Society each won a seat in Sunday's nationwide vote, according to the country's election commission.

"The victory by Anna Kanapatskaya is symbolic, it shows that when the vote count is honest, the opposition can win," said United Civil Party leader Anatoly Lebedko, a prominent opposition figure who was jailed for several months after challenging President Alexander Lukashenko for the country's top job in the 2010 election.

Still, the opposition fielded some 200 candidates in Sunday's polls, meaning just 1 percent made it into parliament. Critics insist that despite the tiny headway they made, a vote held under Lukashenko's repressive regime could never be fair.

"We won't change our view of this campaign. There are no free elections in Belarus," Lebedko said.

International monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were less scathing than usual in their election assessment. Still, they cited "systematic shortcomings" in the election campaign, including restrictions on political rights and unfair media coverage.

"It remains clear that Belarus still has some way to go to fulfill its democratic commitments," Kent Harstedt, head of the OSCE observer mission, said in a statement.

Europe's last dictator

The vote itself went smoothly in terms of being nonviolent and without intimidation, however, ballot boxes were left unguarded during the five days of early voting - creating ample opportunity for ballot stuffing.

Lukashenko, a man once dubbed "Europe's last dictator," is now eager to curry a limited amount of favor with the West in order to get help for his country's ailing economy.

In particular he is seeking a $3 billion (2.7 billion euro) loan from the International Monetary Fund. With that in mind, he released all political prisoners ahead of the election.

The future of the bank loan remains uncertain, but earlier in the year the European Union lifted most economic sanctions imposed in 2011 in response to Lukashenko's brutal crackdown on dissidents.

In 2015 Lukashenko won re-election with a landslide victory for a fifth term - he has ruled the country virtually unchallenged since 1994.

"We've done everything so that there aren't complaints from the Western side," Lukashenko told journalists after casting his vote in the capital, Minsk. "We accommodated their requests."

Opposition leader Yuras Gubarevich ran unsuccessfully for a parliamentary seat. He cautioned the West against being taken in by cosmetic changes.

"Authorities have built a democratic facade for the West," he said, "without changing the essence of the system, which still aims to get a rubber-stamp parliament."

bik/rc (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)