30 years have passed since Alexander Lukashenko became the president of Belarus: what he promised in 1994

Thirty years ago, Alexander Lukashenko won the first election in Belarus. He won by a landslide, receiving 80.34% of the vote. Nowadays, he is called “Europe’s last dictator,” but at the time, he seemed like a very promising candidate for the presidency. Focus He recalled what Lukashenko promised voters in 1994 and how the first elections in his political career took place.

The first presidential elections in Belarus were held on June 23 (first round) and July 10, 1994 (second round), during which the first amendment to the constitution was made, allowing candidates over the age of 35 (previously 40) to participate in the elections. 6 candidates participated in them. The first three in the first round were: Alexander Lukashenko – 44.82%, Vyacheslav Kebich – 17.33%, Zenon Poznyak – 12.82%. In the second round on July 10, 1994, Alexander Lukashenko won with a score of 80.34%.

Ten days later, he was sworn in and became president. International organizations consider the 1994 elections to be democratic.

The beginning of Alexander Lukashenko’s political career

In 1990, Alexander Lukashenko became a deputy of the Supreme Soviet. Until 1987, he was the director of the Gorodets state farm in the Shklovsky district of the Mogilev region. Lukashenko criticized in parliament the leadership of the republic – Chairman of the Council of Ministers Vyacheslav Kebich and Chairman of the Supreme Council Stanislav Shushkevich for authoritarianism, but at the same time opposed the secession of Belarus from the USSR. Lukashenko was the only member of parliament who did not vote in favor of ratifying the Belovezhskaya Agreement.

After the collapse of the USSR, Lukashenko actively criticized the old communist terminology. Thus, in May 1991, Narodnaya Gazeta published Lukashenko’s article “Dictatorship: The Belarusian Option?”, in which he wrote that “six years ago, having decided to democratize society, it was necessary to start with people who supported the new with spirit. We wanted to make changes by the hand of those who brought the country to the brink of the abyss.” Also in 1994, Lukashenko stated that the state media was lying.

In August 1991, Lukashenko advocated the closure of the Belarusian Communist Party, and in October he founded the People’s Consensus Party with deputies from his own faction.

However, Lukashenko quickly left this party and entered the 1994 elections as a non-party member. Answering journalists’ questions about his political views, the future president said that he was neither right nor left, but a realist.

Lukashenko’s 1994 election promises

The election program of 39-year-old Alexander Lukashenko was simple and clear and was called “Lead the people away from the abyss.” The main goals were:

• Put an end to rising prices and the impoverishment of the population.
• Fight corruption and “defeat mafia structures.”
• Re-establish “ineptly destroyed ties” with the former Soviet republics.
• Lukashenko’s program ended with a promise to “bring the state and the people back from the abyss.”

Lukashenko continued: “This is the president’s primary task. I believe in the wisdom and hard work of the Belarusian people.

Belarusian writer Vasil Bykov noted in his memoirs “Long Way Home”: “People followed the tough, assertive, pragmatic manager of the state farm, whose ideas were simple and completely understandable. He rushed to Russia to extract bread, gasoline, gas, without which it was impossible not only to “revive”, but also to survive the winter. Of course, many people understood and felt that this would deprive Belarus of its sovereignty and take it away from democracy. Is there democracy if hungry children cry?”

Lukashenko after the elections

After his victory, Lukashenko’s first act was to suppress the free press. In December 1994, Sergei Antonchik, a deputy from the Belarusian Popular Front (BPF), submitted a report to parliament on corruption in Lukashenko’s circle. Newspapers attempted to publish the text of the report, but Lukashenko ordered printers not to print it. And editors refused to remove the material from the layout. As a result, many newspapers were published with headlines but without text.

The result of the conflict was the closure of 12 independent newspapers.

On June 16, 1994, near the village of Liozno, Vitebsk Region, unidentified persons opened fire on Lukashenko’s car. But no one was injured.

Lukashenko demanded an investigation. A KGB representative told a press conference shortly afterwards that the attempt was a staged action.

During the elections, Lukashenko was supported by many young politicians who opposed the old Soviet nomenklatura and did not want the victory of Kebich, who had been the party leader since the days of the USSR.

In 1995 and 1996, Lukashenko held two referendums, which, among other things, decided to expand his powers – the right to dissolve the Supreme Council, approval of Lukashenko’s policy of economic integration with Russia, and the “reset” of the terms of office. In addition, the white and red flag on which Lukashenko took the oath was replaced with a red and green flag, the Soviet flag was restored with some changes, and Russian became the second state language.

It is noteworthy that Lukashenko’s former ally Viktor Gonchar opposed this and even tried to initiate his impeachment, but he disappeared in 1999. In 2019, former SOBR officer of the Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs Yuri Garavsky said in an interview that Gonchar was killed on the orders of Lukashenko.

Alexander Feduta, one of the leaders of Lukashenko’s campaign headquarters, also defected to the opposition. In 2010, Feduta was arrested by the KGB on charges of “organizing mass riots” and sentenced to two years’ probation. In 2021, Feduta was abducted from Moscow and taken to Minsk. On September 5, 2022, the Minsk Regional Court sentenced Alexander Feduta to 10 years in prison in a maximum security colony.

Anatoly Lebedko, an opposition figure who supported Svetlana Tikhanovskaya in the 2020 elections in 1994, was also working at Alexander Lukashenko’s headquarters. He was kidnapped from his home by unidentified assailants on the night of December 19-20, 2010. He was held in a KGB pre-trial detention center. He is currently in exile, but his son Artem was sentenced to three years in prison in Belarus for financing “extremist” activities.

The OSCE began reporting human rights violations from Lukashenko’s first term.

In other elections, Lukashenko has consistently won by significant margins, and international organizations have reported significant irregularities.

The 2020 elections were accompanied by mass protests and arrests. The result was a “victory” for Lukashenko with an official result of 80.10% on 84.05% turnout. Some countries did not recognize the election results.

Ukraine officially recognized the presidential elections held in Belarus on August 9 as illegitimate – the corresponding decision was adopted by a majority vote in the Verkhovna Rada.

Let us recall that Alexander Lukashenko gave a resounding interview to Dmitry Gordon in 2020, in which he said that “presidents are not made, presidents are born.”