Lukashenko: electoral campaigns are already a battlefield

Electoral campaigns have long ceased to be just a technical procedure aimed to form certain government institutions – as stated by President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko during today’s meeting with the heads of the CIS electoral authorities

photo: www.president.gov.by

Welcoming the guests, Aleksandr Lukashenko drew attention to the fact that the CIS Advisory Council of Heads of Electoral Bodies was established recently, “This shows how much importance is attached in our countries to the organisation of elections and referendums, and the improvement of electoral legislation.”

The President added that, going to this meeting, he recalled the times when the CIS electoral bodies were just being established, “Frankly speaking, this is a good positive product of democracy and the democratisation of our society in those days. We argued for a long time whether we need election commissions or not, we studied the experience of other countries, where, e.g., the Interior Ministry can also control and implement [election campaigns], as well as make appropriate conclusions on the elections. However, following the democratic path, we have created our election commissions: a vertical from the Central Election Commission to the relevant district commissions. This is one of those cases where we were not mistaken. But at that time we could not even think that your activity, the area of your responsibility, will become a battlefield in which you often fight, thank God, not alone. Nevertheless, you have enough to do. Electoral campaigns have long ceased to be merely a technical procedure. Frankly speaking, this is already a battlefield in the pre-election and election periods, where the main actors are the bodies of the Central Election Commission, and election commissions in general.”

The President noted that today’s elections are one of the main, if not the main political event in the life of any country. However, according to Aleksandr Lukashenko, it is necessary to strive to ensure that this is an ordinary political process.

“Then it will be easier for you. High-quality election preparation, transparency, and honesty guarantee the maintenance of political stability and the preservation of peace and order in society. Our opponents (probably they felt it in all countries) always try to use the electoral period in their own interests. If they fail to do it calmly, they use somewhere well-known revolutionary, rebellious methods to counteract the current government. With the help of proven technologies, they are trying to undermine society from within and thus weaken the state power,” the Head of State noted.

According to the President, Belarus has also experienced the impact of ‘colour’ technologies in 2020.

“But we have always sincerely admitted that only pressure from abroad forced our society to shake. This means that there are also internal reasons for this. We know these reasons, we have clearly identified them and drawn the appropriate conclusions, having learnt lessons from those events so that this does not repeat,” the Belarusian leader emphasised.

Aleksandr Lukashenko named the consolidation of the term ‘electoral sovereignty’ in the National Security Concept adopted at the Belarusian People’s Congress among the measures taken, “We are talking about protecting our national interests, the inalienable right of the state to hold elections and referendums without regard to shouts and pressure from outside.”

The Head of State noted our readiness to openly discuss with partners, primarily with the CIS member states, our developments in the field of improving legislation and ensuring the security of the electoral process.