Alexander Lukashenko

Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko was born in the village of Kopys in 1954. He graduated from Mogilev Teaching Institute (1975) and Belorussian Agricultural Academy (1985). During 1982–90 he managed Soviet state and collective farms and a factory before his election to the Supreme Soviet (Parliament) of the Belorussian SSR in 1990. In Parliament young and inexperienced, but very ambitious and imperious, Lukashenko tended to join any perspective political organization shifting from the right wing – Belarusian People Front (Belarusian nationalistic party) to the very left Communists.

In 1994, running as a populist on an anticorruption and antiprivatization platform, he won a landslide victory in the presidential elections. Much of his electoral platform was based on the corruption of the Belarusian government. A referendum in 1996, initialized by the President secured the adoption of changes into constitution, which reduced parliamentary authority and increased presidential powers, and the extension of his term as a president. Since that time Belarus began to earn its reputation as Europe’s last dictatorship. Using his new authority, Lukashenko had appointed the new Parliament, later – new Government and Constitutional Court.

During his first seven years term (first 4-year had been extended by referendum in 1996) the country lost freedom of speech, freedom of press and conscience, economy and prestige. The second elections for president took place on September 9, 2001, in which Lukashenko campaigned on the platform very similar to the one in 1994. He still tells ordinary Belarusians what they want to hear: the country will have no luck with economic reform, “order” will be maintained and Belarus will continue to grow closer to Russia. He proclaimed opposition to the NATO enlargement and West in general. Lukashenko officially “won” 76,6% of the votes. However human rights organizations reported that Belarusian opposition supporters were systematically harassed.

During the last 5 years, he has personally totally terminated freedom of speech and press in Belarus, reintroduced Soviet-style state-run ideological indoctrination into the workplace, cleaned the Universities staff from any signs of slightest oppositional thinking and subverted the principles of religious freedom and the separation of church and the state.
Another “elegant victory” in the referendum in 2004 eliminated presidential term limits. Meaning candidate #1 for the Presidential Elections on March 19, 2006 is Alexander Lukashenko.