BELARUS: Belarus, once described by Washington as Europe's last dictatorship, voted yesterday in a parliamentary election that President Alexander Lukashenko said would lead to better relations with the West.
Hundreds of his opponents, who got the chance to win parliamentary seats for the first time since the early 1990s, staged a rally in the capital Minsk protesting against the election and urging the West not to endorse it.
"If the election goes smoothly, the West will recognise Belarus," Mr Lukashenko said after voting early yesterday.
"Dictator? Last dictator? Fine, let it be so," he said, referring to the label applied by US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice in 2005. "You wouldn't have seen the last dictator had you not come here," he said in a jokey exchange with reporters.
Mr Lukashenko, accused of flouting fundamental rights during 14 years in power, has freed political prisoners and eased curbs on the opposition, which was shut out of the outgoing 110-member parliament.
He is banned from travelling to the United States and European Union, which accused him of rigging his 2006 re-election.
"The elections went wonderfully," the head of the Central Electoral Commission Lidia Yermoshina said in televised comments after the polling stations closed at 8pm local time.
Now, it is up to 477 observers from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OECD) to say whether it was free and fair. The verdict may matter more than the actual outcome of the vote. - (Reuters)