Belarus says EU statements on elections 'unsuccessful attempt' to interfere in internal affairs

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Belarus said on Wednesday that the EU’s statements on the country’s local and parliamentary elections are an “unsuccessful attempt” to interfere in its internal affairs.

The Foreign Ministry in a statement said “pre-prepared conclusions” do not contain anything new," and “We view them as continuing unsuccessful attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of our country."

Sunday's vote was the country’s first since the 2020 polls that handed President Alexander Lukashenko his sixth term in office.

The Central Election Commission said 73% of the country's 6.9 million eligible voters cast ballots, filling all 110 seats in the national parliament and 12,514 seats in local councils.

Since August 2020, the EU has imposed sanctions against individuals, as well as economic sanctions on the Russian ally. Moscow has also stationed tactical nuclear missiles in Belarus.

According to the EU, conditions for free and fair elections were not met and new parliamentary and local officials lack “democratic legitimacy.”

The ministry said rhetoric used by the EU in the statements is filled with “outright falsifications” and remarks “divorced from reality."

It said the support it expressed for the people of Belarus against the backdrop of “countless economic restrictions” can only be characterized by “cynical duplicity.”

The ministry argued that the EU’s concerns regarding Belarusian internal politics look “meaningless” due to its refusal to hold direct interactions with Minsk.

“In Minsk, we proceed from the fact that only dialogue and interaction can resolve any concerns and resolve any problems,” the statement said, adding: “We reject the EU’s unfounded accusations of some kind of special regime for serving sentences for individual citizens of Belarus, whose fates attract special attention in Western political circles only because of their political preferences.”

Belarus also denounced the EU’s condemnation of Minsk’s decision to deploy nuclear weapons, adding that Belarus and the EU have different views on the essence and causes of the situation in Ukraine, noting that Minsk is concerned with Brussels’ support for Kyiv, as well as NATO’s expansion.