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Alexander Lukashenko (, ''Aljaksandar Ryhoravič Lukašenka/Alyaksandar Ryhoravich Lukashenka''; , ''Aleksandr Grigoryevich Lukashenko''; born and focused on corruption issues. His policies have been criticized by foreign and domestic observers as undemocratic. EARLY CAREER (TO 1994) Lukashenko was born in 1954 in the settlement of Kopys in the Vitebsk Voblast of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic . He graduated from the Mogilev Pedagogical Institute in 1975, leading a Komsomol chapter in Mogilev from 1977 to 1978. Lukashenko served in the Border Guard from 1975 to 1977 and in the Soviet Army from 1980 to 1982. After leaving the military he became the deputy chairman of a Collective Farm in 1982 and in 1985. He was promoted to the post of director of the Gorodets State Farm and construction materials plant in the Shklov district. In 1990 Lukashenko was elected as a Deputy in the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Belarus. He founded the 'Communists for Democracy' faction, which advocated a democratic Soviet Union run on communist principles. He claims to have been the only deputy of the Belarusian parliament who voted against ratification of the December 1991 agreement that dissolved the Soviet Union and set up the Commonwealth Of Independent States in its place. In the aftermath of the dissolution of the USSR , Lukashenko briefly returned to management of a state farm. Having acquired a reputation as an eloquent opponent of corruption, Lukashenko was elected in 1993 to serve as the chairman of the anti-corruption committee of the Belarusian parliament. Although he maintained a close association with leftist Communist factions, he fell out of favor with much of the Party Of Communists Of Belarus for his attacks on the corruption and privileges of the Communist Nomenklatura . In late 1993 he accused 70 senior government officials of corruption including stealing state funds for personal purposes. Lukashenko accused Stanislav Shushkevich , the Speaker of Parliament, of failing to tackle government corruption. His accusations led to a vote of confidence, which Shushkevich lost. Some believe that the vague nature of the charges indicates they were merely a pretext for removing Shushkevich, who had become increasingly unpopular among the conservative parliamentary majority.Prof. David R Maples. "Belarus, the black sheep of Eastern Europe?". The Ukrainian Weekly, No. 41, October 13 1996 . Gunnar Simonsen. "Conflicts in the OSCE area", International Peace Research Institute, Oslo, 2004, p. 179 [http://www.prio.no/files/osce-pdf/osce-belarus.pdf A new , 2007 . FIRST TERM (1994-2001) (left) in 1996.]] In May of 1995, one of the first votes under Lukashenko occurred. Not only the national symbolics of the country changed, it also gave the Lukashenko the ability to disband the Supreme Soviet by decree. Central Elections Committee of the Republic of Belarus 1995 Referendum Questions In the summer of 1996, 70 deputies of the 199-member Belarusian parliament signed a petition to impeach Lukashenko on charges of violating the Constitution.CNN Concern grows over Belarus power struggle . Published , 1996 . On , 2004 . After the referendum Lukashenko convened a new parliamentary assembly from those members of the parliament who were loyal to him. After 12 deputies withdrew their signature from the impeachment petition, only about 40 deputies of old parliament were left behind by Lukashenko, but they even had no place to convene, since the administration closed the parliament building "for remodeling". Still, for some time the EU and Council Of Europe considered these remnants of the old parliament as the legitimate assembly.British Helsinki Human Rights Group, a 1997 report on Belarus At the start of 1998, the Russian central bank suspended trading in the Belarusian ruble, which led to a collapse in the value of the currency. Lukashenko responded by taking control of the Belarus central bank, the sacking of the entire bank leadership and blaming the West for the free fall of the currency.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/68004.stm He blamed foreign governments for conspiring against him, and in April 1998 he expelled ambassadors from the Drazdy complex near in Nagano , Japan .http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/longterm/olympics1998/sport/articles/ruler21.htm Upon the outbreak of the of 2003, the United States intelligence agencies issued a report that announced aides of Saddam Hussein managed to acquire Belarusian passports while in Syria. The same report mentioned it was unlikely that Belarus would offer safe harbor for Saddam and his two sons.http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2003/06/24/886972.htm These policies led Western governments to take a tougher position against Lukashenko. The United States was particularly angered by Belarus's arms trade with , Latvia and Lithuania .http://www.mfa.gov.by/eng/index.php?d=publications/smi&id=14 SECOND TERM (2001-2006) Lukashenko's original five-year term of office ran out in July 1999 but had been extended to 2001 by the 1996 referendum. Elections were held on ; a full merger with Russia but no Russian-style Shock Therapy ; strong presidential rule to maintain social order; opposition to the enlargement of NATO and the West in general. His opponent was Uladzimir Hancharyk . Lukashenko won in the first round in what was claimed to be a landslide victory. However, the Organization For Security And Cooperation In Europe described the process as "failing to meet international standards" and human rights organizations reported that opposition supporters were systematically harassed, arbitrarily barred from standing as candidates or voting and were excluded from the state-run media. Western governments also criticized the elections. Russia, by contrast, publicly welcomed Lukashenko's re-election. '' Jane's Intelligence '' surmised that the price of Russian support for Lukashenko ahead of the presidential elections was the surrender of Minsk's control over its section of the Yamal-Europe Gas Pipeline .M J A Standish. "Editor's notes." '' Jane's Intelligence Digest.'' 11 January 2006 . Lukashenko promotes himself as a "man of the people". Because of his style of rule, he is often informally referred to as ''bat'ka'' (", 2004 . Retrieved March 28 , 2007 . Opposition groups, the OSCE, EU, and US State Dept have accused state TV channels of pro-Lukashenko bias and transmitting pro-Lukashenko propaganda and election day polls at midday on October 17, although Belarusian law prohibits this. The opposition and western observers said that the vote was fraudulent. The OSCE mission said it "fell significantly short of international standards". CIS monitors on the other hand stated that vote was held without significant violations. 2006 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION See Also: Belarusian presidential election, 2006 After Lukashenko confirmed he was running for re-election in 2005, opposition groups began to seek a single candidate. On October 16, 2005, the Day of Solidarity With Belarus, Zubr and Third Way Belarus, were encouraging all of the opposition parties to rally behind one candidate to oppose Lukashenko in the 2006 election.http://www.data.minsk.by/belarusnews/102005/41.html Their chosen candidate was Alexander Milinkevich , who was running against Lukashenko and other candidates.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4304412.stm On March 19 , 2006 exit polls showed Lukashenko winning a third term in a landslide, amid opposition claims of vote-rigging and fear of violence. The EcooM organization gave Lukashenko 84.2% of the vote and Milinkevich just 2 percent, while the Belarusian Committee Of Youth Organizations , gave Lukashenko 84.2% and Milinkevich 3.1 percent. The Gallup Organization has noted that EcooM and the Belarusian Committee of Youth Organizations are government-controlled and both released their exit poll results before noon on election day, although voting stations closed at 8 P.M.http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2006/03/20/gallup Belarus authorities vowed to crush unrest in the event of large-scale protests following the election (such as those that marked the Orange Revolution in Ukraine). Despite that, the crowd of demonstrators rallying after the election was the biggest the opposition had mustered in years, with nightly protests and demonstrations in Minsk. The turnout at the biggest protest on election night was about 10,000 according to AP reporters' estimates.http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/03/19/international/i170349S45.DTL Election observers from the Commonwealth Of Independent States (CIS) and the Organization For Security And Cooperation In Europe (OSCE) differed on the Belarus vote.http://english.people.com.cn/200603/21/eng20060321_252162.html The OSCE declared on March 20, 2006 that the "presidential election failed to meet OSCE commitments for democratic elections." Lukashenko "permitted State authority to be used in a manner which did not allow citizens to freely and fairly express their will at the ballot box... a pattern of intimidation and the suppression of independent voices... was evident throughout the campaign."http://www.osce.org/documents/html/pdftohtml/18437_en.pdf.html In contrast, the CIS observers declared the Belarus presidential election open and transparent. The Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs declared, "Long before the elections, the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights had declared that they elections would be illegitimate and it was pretty biased in its commentaries on their progress and results, thus playing an instigating role." Some Russia n nationalists, such as Dmitry Rogozin and the Movement Against Illegal Immigration , have stated that they would like to see Lukashenko become President Of Russia in 2008. Lukashenko spoke and said he will not run for the Russian presidency and, if his health is still well, he might run for reelection in 2011.MosNews. Rightist Group Promote Belarus Dictator Lukashenko as Russian Presidential Candidate . Published February 28, 2007. Retrieved July 11, 2007. CRITICISM Some critics of Lukashenko use the term Lukashism ('''lukashenkoism''') to refer to the that can be used here if desired --> Lukashenko continues to face domestic opposition from a coalition of opposition groups bankrolled by the United States and Europe. The United States Congress has sought to aid the opposition groups by passing the Belarus Democracy Act Of 2004 to introduce sanctions against Lukashenko's government and provide financial and other support to the opposition.http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/10/20041020-14.html REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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