Dictator at bay

摘要

In a country the Americans have dubbed the last dictatorship in Europe, it is not surprising when an election is criticised by international observers. In Belarus's vote on September 28th, candidates loyal to the president, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, took all 110 seats. European monitors talked of only "minor improvements" on previous flawed votes, called the election campaign "barely visible" and found serious fault with the count. This poses a dilemma for the West. America and the European Union must decide soon whether Belarus's minimal progress in a democratic direction is enough for them to curtail their sanctions on the country. Mr Lukashenka, a former collective-farm boss who has been in power for the past 14 years, says he is expecting the sanctions to go. Otherwise he threatens to stop talking to the West altogether. Russia's war with Georgia in August has made Mr Lukashenka, for all his flaws, a man worth courting.