A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics
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A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics | |
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March 20, 2006BelarusEU denounces Lukashenko’s poll victory Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus’ authoritarian president, declared on Monday that foreign-backed attempts to overthrow him had failed, claiming a crushing victory in elections that international observers condemned as seriously flawed. Exit polling indicated that Lukashenko garnered only 40% or so of the vote, less than the 50% needed to avoid a runoff. The "official" results gave him 80%-plus. Russia, which backed Lukashenko, called the elections "free and fair." Others called them "an unconstitutional seizure of power." And those were the observors being kind. The USSR may have fallen, but the last several years have highlighted what students of Russian history have known all along. The Russian government remains the same viciously paranoid power-hungry bureaucratic structure it has been since long before the October Revolution. Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. UPDATE: Tech Central has more. And Publius has live-blogging from Belarus. Posted by Tully at March 20, 2006 03:44 PMComments
What's interesting to me is that Lukashenko apparently has broad support in the rural areas because he has brought some measure of prosperity to those areas. It's the same in Thailand, where the urban professionals are demonstrating against Thaksin but the rural people strongly support him. It seems that authoritarian governments are becoming more clever about how they loot and oppress their subjects. They now work at establishing some base of popular support, based on economic issues,which they can use to arginalize opponents. And, populism seems to work anywhere--just rail against those educated elites and foreign powers and portray yourself as the friend of the (more numerous) common people. Constitutional rights and democracy are abstract in many ways and won't trump having food on your table. Especially as long as the government will basically leave you alone. Posted by: Marc at March 21, 2006 01:23 PM |
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