
Belarus president: “Until you kill me, there will be no other elections” - apsec112
https://news.sky.com/story/belarus-uk-condemns-appalling-violence-against-protesters-and-does-not-accept-results-of-election-12050864
======
phone8675309
Well now it would be rude to not try.

In the spirit of "those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make
violent revolution inevitable," and all.

~~~
mc32
It looks like he is looking for an excuse to invite non NATO troops into his
country. That non-NATO entity has already signaled it’s ready to send troops
if asked.[1]

When your dictatorship is in trouble, who’re you gonna call? Right now the
answer lies west of the Ural Mountains.

[1] [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/08/belarus-president-
put...](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/08/belarus-president-putin-ready-
ensure-security-200815183314584.html)

~~~
runawaybottle
A total repeat of Syria. Russia backed Assad, just need this guy to start
gassing his people too.

~~~
sam_lowry_
I lived in Belarus between 1989 and 1999, I still have the Belarusian passport
and I vote.

Syria is different. The population of Belarus is fairly uniform, mostly urban
and well educated.

They are unbelievably peaceful. Just look at the pictures of the protests. No
car was burned, no window smashed in 8 days by the protesters.

The only people damaging property, beating and killing others were riot police
and special forces, and they were bred in the spirit of violence for years.

I am still afraid that once peaceful crowds learn the true fate of those
missing, they will storm the prisons with bare hands and die by hundreds.

~~~
ashtonkem
You can only push a population so far before they rationally decide that it’s
now “do or die” and mean that literally.

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jetzzz
I can't help but take this opportunity to say just how amazing Belarus
protesters are:

* They take off their shoes to stand on the bench [1] [2].

* They remove all the garbage after them [3]. Streets after protests are cleaner than before.

[1] - [https://t.me/nexta_live/8250](https://t.me/nexta_live/8250)

[2] -
[https://twitter.com/belteanews/status/1294022770771341312](https://twitter.com/belteanews/status/1294022770771341312)

[3] -
[https://twitter.com/belteanews/status/1295014755850235904](https://twitter.com/belteanews/status/1295014755850235904)

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ashtonkem
That seems like a very unwise thing to say during mass protests.

Edit: he’s also giving up all pretense of legitimate, democratic rule, which
is interesting. I guess with the mass protests the “we won 80% of the vote”
lie finally no longer held any water.

------
52-6F-62
Wording it like a challenge probably means he hopes there will be attempts. If
we're to take any of this at near-face value, then it seems like he would love
a reason to call in help from places he's claimed have offered.

I definitely feel for the people of Belarus right now.

~~~
elmo2you
You are correct, sir. Although it might also just be for using his own powers
and not per se foreign ones.

In most systems like these, any form of violence (by citizens) is used as an
excuse to respond with (disproportional) repressive violence. Many citizens
know this, and many have learned it the hard way. So they try to disrupt and
disable the system trough non-violent means, which is truly is terrifying for
any totalitarian regime. Often such regimes will then resort to brazenly
taunting the people and hoping at least someone will bite (given them the
excuse they need). They may also just stage violence or an assassination
attempt, just to get their way and use the only tool they know: control
through (the threat of) violence.

In fact, ironically, that might also be a rather fitting approximation to
characterize the (actual) way the USA conducts its foreign policy towards many
countries, particularly China and above all Russia. But that's another story.

------
trash_cat
I feel like he is digging his own grave. After social media and the twitter
revolution, it's not something I would say in where mass protests are already
under way. Dude is way to divorced from reality. Just look how many
revolutions and mass protests we had over the last 10 years. Lukashenko will
need to go full on Assad if he wants to stay in place. Not going to happen.

------
sys_64738
Sheer numbers are what overthrows regimes. This is why those in power try to
kill protest before it can reach critical mass. Something happened here to tip
it over.

------
rsynnott
I'm not sure that people will take what he's hoping from that...

------
shmerl
Is anyone surprised? It's a case for a psychiatrist. The recent speech of this
jerk is complete demagoguery which also shows how scared he is.

And he is not a president anymore, even if he calls himself such.

~~~
onyva
Mind you the USA has a sitting president that didn’t win the election by way
of a popular vote. More so it’s believed he cheated, though we know that
everything that led to the elections was wrong from an ethical point of view.
It’s very hard to get rid of these people once they take control of a
country’s institutes and dismantle them one by one.

~~~
smsm42
None of the US presidents every won the election "by way of popular vote",
because popular vote is not the way US presidential election is won. It's like
complaining that a team who made the most goals won the soccer match instead
of the team that run the fastest and has the prettiest shirts, how unfair that
is especially that scoring the goal is completely pointless anyway.

Those are the rules. Any rules have people that think they could win if only
the rules were different - but they aren't, so every US president is elected
according to the rules for US presidential elections, not some other imaginary
rules. Time to stop whining about it. If you want to change the rules -
there's constitutional amendment procedure, go after it, good luck. Until
you're done and the rules are changed, don't whine about somebody winning by
the rules that are in play at the time.

------
vanusa
Famous last words

~~~
ClikeX
"What are you gonna do, stab me?" \- Julius Ceasar

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nostromo
The headline makes it seem like he's saying there will be no more elections
ever.

But in context he's saying there will not be a do-over election.

~~~
jayrot
When the dude has been in power for 26 years, that's somewhat of a distinction
without a difference.

~~~
nostromo
That's an absurd take. Lots of politicians have long tenures because they've
won re-election. That is not the same as suspending elections.

~~~
jayrot
> Lots of politicians have long tenures because they've won re-election.

Like Kim Jong-un? Who wins every re-election with 100% of the vote?

~~~
nostromo
Why not Chuck Schumer, who has been winning elections for 40 years without a
loss?

Clearly one should care about the fairness of the election process, not that
someone wins lots of elections. To say that winning multiple elections is the
same as ending democracy is, as I said, an absurd take.

------
mateo411
Well, he's not wrong.

------
PedroBatista
Big words are easy when his puppet master "guaranteed" him total support..

~~~
sam_lowry_
Are you talking about Trump?

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ykevinator
That's a boss

------
vondur
I’m guessing the President of Belarus is backed by Putin?

~~~
Taniwha
Probably not the only one ....

------
xvf22
Given he's called in Putin to provide security I'm guessing he wants people to
try?

~~~
rsynnott
It's not clear that Russia will want to get involved beyond some sort of
symbolic effort. They gave a fairly non-answer answer to Lukashenko's request
for aid.

------
dylan604
I feel like the quote truncated the last part "I triple dog dare you"

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rubyn00bie
Seems pretty spot on how to history goes down. My history of US economics
professor, used to love saying something akin to:

"The only thing that history tells us for sure, is if you leave people with
nothing, _one_ day, the people will come and remove your head from your body."

I'm not quite sure why he'd so willfully encourage it unless he's burnt out or
has a suicide wish.

------
slg
This headline highlights a huge problem with modern journalism. Their bias
towards civility and appearing unbiased means they often refuse to call a
spade a spade. When a guy says you have to kill him to get another election,
he should lose the respect and legitimacy that comes with the title of
"president". At the very least they should call him the head of state and not
lend his "election" legitimacy by referring to him with a title defined by
being an elective office.

------
gowld
Contradictory quotes have been attributed:

[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-belarus-election/im-
not-a...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-belarus-election/im-not-a-saint-
lukashenko-offers-to-hand-over-power-after-referendum-idUSKCN25D0IJ)

I don't know what language he originally spoke in. Either he has difficulty
with English, or he was mistranslated.

> “We’ve held elections,” he said. “Until you’ve killed me there won’t be any
> new elections.”

> “We’ll put the changes to a referendum, and I’ll hand over my constitutional
> powers. But not under pressure or because of the street,” Lukashenko said,
> in remarks quoted by the official Belta news agency.

> “Yes, I’m not a saint. You know my harsh side. I’m not eternal. But if you
> drag down the first president you’ll drag down neighbouring countries and
> all the rest.”

> He also said people could hold parliamentary and presidential elections
> after the referendum if that was what they wanted.

~~~
callmekit
He spoke Russian, here is the clip:
[https://censor.net.ua/en/news/3214153/until_you_kill_me_ther...](https://censor.net.ua/en/news/3214153/until_you_kill_me_there_will_be_no_other_elections_lukashenko_video)

I'm a native Russian speaker. He said something like "We held the elections.
Until you kill me, there will be no different elections.", meaning the
elections will not be cancelled (this also follows from the previous context
in the video).

