Ukrainian political expert: The present situation in Belarus is like the period of “Ukraine without Kuchma”

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Political expert, the chairman of the Center for the Study of Political Values (Ukraine) Oles Doniy says that the Byelorussian opposition has no chances to win through voting. In a Sunday phone talk with REGNUM Doniy said that nothing has changed from the last elections — the opposition is still pressured both psychologically and physically. Throughout the campaign the regime kept in total check all the media giving the opposition no real chance to influence the society. The opposition NGOs and parties had no access to townships and villages and were forced to focus on big and mid-sized towns where they had no chances to win through voting. I am almost sure that Alexander Lukashenko will keep his presidency through a landslide victory — not that all Byelorussians trust him so much, simply the opposition candidates had no chances to make themselves known to ordinary people.

As regards the opposition’s readiness for the next parliamentary elections, Doniy says: “I see no significant changes in the opposition. This time they put forward less radical leaders than last time. This allowed them to enlarge their social basis. But they failed to come up in a united front after a united candidate. Still their last rallies in Minsk have shown that they have a potential for the parliamentary elections. But, unlike their counterparts in Ukraine, the Byelorussian opposition has no significant financing and consequently no supply of supporters from other regions. Furthermore, what is going on in Belarus now is very much like the period of ‘Ukraine without Kuchma.’ There is some smolder of displeasure in society, there is some opposition, but this is not enough for changing the regime.”