I have reported on many elections.
I have seen prime ministers and presidents roll up at polling stations, cast ballots and then take a few questions from reporters.
But I have never seen anything quite like the scene at Polling Station 478 in Minsk.
Long-time leader of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, once dubbed “Europe’s last dictator”, arrived to cast his ballot. Then, while Belarusians were still voting, candidate Lukashenko gave a four-and-a-half hour press conference live on state TV.
It was an opportunity to quiz him on the controversial vote which his critics have denounced as “a sham”.
“What wretched question have you prepared for me?” he asked. “Like you always do.”
“Good morning,” I replied.
“Good morning, Steve.”
“How can you call this a democratic election, when your main rivals are either in prison or in exile?” I asked.
“Some are in prison, and some are in exile. But you are here!” said Lukashenko.
“Everyone has the right to choose. That is democracy. Some chose prison, others chose exile. We never forced anyone out of the country.”
In reality, it was the authorities’ brutal crackdown on protesters after the 2020 presidential election that led to Alexander Lukashenko’s staunchest opponents either being jailed or driven into political exile. Personal choice did not come into it.
“You said recently ‘We mustn’t shut people’s mouths’ [silence people],” I reminded him.
“But your rivals haven’t just been kept off the ballot. Some of them have been jailed. There are currently more than 1,200 political prisoners in Belarus. Isn’t it time to open the prison cells and release them? People like Maria Kolesnikova, Sergei Tikhanovsky…”
“You keep going on about Maria to me. My God,” Lukashenko sighed.
“OK, I’ll answer your question…Prison is for people who have opened their mouths too wide and who have broken the law. Don’t you have prisons in Britain and America?”
“In any country, if you break the law, you must bear the consequences,” he continued. “The law is strict but it is the law. I didn’t invent it. You need to abide by it.”
“You need to abide by the law,” I interjected. “But these people are in prison for criticising you.”
“Ignorance of the law does not absolve you of responsibility before it.”
Although prominent opposition figures were not allowed to run, Alexander Lukashenko’s name was not the only one on the ballot. There were four other candidates. But they came across more like spoilers than serious challengers.
“We spoke to some of the other candidates,” I told Lukashenko. “One of them, the Communist Party leader, openly supports you. Another is full of praise for you. It’s a strange election, isn’t it, with opponents like this…”
“Steve, this is a whole new experience for you!” he replied, to laughter and applause from local journalists in the room.
“That’s true,” I said. “I haven’t seen an election like this before.”
“The Communists’ policy based on justice is the same policy that we’re promoting,” argued Lukashenko. “So why would they vote against me?”
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has characterised this presidential election in Belarus as a “blatant affront to democracy”.
Not that Alexander Lukashenko seems to care.
“I swear to you,” he told me, “I couldn’t care less whether you recognise our election or whether you don’t. The most important thing for me is that the people of Belarus recognise it.”
