Belarus prepares for another fraudulent election

THE LAST time that Belarus held an election, in August 2020, Alexander Lukashenko was embarrassed. After decades of successful vote rigging, Belarusians seemed determined to call time on his dictatorship. During the campaign they turned up in droves to support Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya, a former teacher who was standing in place of her vlogger husband after he had been arrested.

She was awarded just 9.9% of the official vote; most analysts believe that she actually won. One in five adults in cities took to the streets in protest. Over 35,000 people were detained. Since then, some 500,000 people have fled Belarus, including Ms Tsikhanouskaya, who now lives in exile in neighbouring Lithuania.