Belarus After Elections: Three Years of Stability? - 23 October 2012
Anglo-Belarusian Society
Belarus After Elections: Three Years of Stability?
23 October 2012, 6.30-8.00 pm (registration from 6.15 pm)
ECFR office, 3rd Floor Conference Room35 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9JA
Panel participants:
Andrew Wilson, Senior Policy Fellow, the European Council on Foreign Relations
Katia Glod, Robert Bosch Fellow, Russia and Eurasia Programme
Yauheni Preiherman, Policy Director, Liberal Club (Minsk) and regular contributor to Belarus Digest
The regime of Aliaksandr Lukashenka in Belarus took no chances in the September 23rd parliamentary elections: numerous opposition candidates were not registered, mass media remained under the government’s firm control and the vote was manipulated on election day.
Meanwhile the opposition – lacking a united strategy and facing pressure from the authorities – was unable to use the opportunity offered by the campaigning period to turn their image from that of dissidents to a real political alternative to the current regime and to re-connect with broader society.
Now that the parliamentary elections are over and three more years remain before the presidential election scheduled for 2015, will Belarus enter a new stage of stagnation – or “stability”, as the official Minsk calls it – or are political and economic changes feasible between now and 2015?