Minsk fulfilled all of West’s wishes ahead of election, Lukashenka says

The Belarusian authorities have fulfilled all of the West’s wishes ahead of the October 6-11 presidential election, Alyaksandr Lukashenka told reporters after casting his ballot at a polling station in Minsk.

Asked whether Belarus’ relations with the West could improve after the election, Mr. Lukashenka said, “These elections may become an improvement only if the West wants that. If the West has an intention [to improve relations] no one and nothing can prevent that from happening.”

He said that the “ball” was now in the “court” of the West and the European Union in particular.

Mr. Lukashenka also said that he was unaware of the existence of universal democratic election standards. “I would like to be familiarized with the standards that we should observe. We have conducted elections in line with our constitution and our laws that have been recognized by everyone,” he said. He shrugged off complaints about Belarus’ five-day early voting period. “The stronghold of democracy, the United States, conducts early voting months before the voting day,” he said.

Belarus has repeatedly called for developing universal standards for conducting and assessing elections, including within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, according to Mr. Lukashenka. “Let’s devise these standards and if we accept and sign up for them we will observe them sacredly,” he said.