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President Aleksandr Lukashenko | |
| Became President: | July 20, 1994 |
| Predecessor: | None (First elected President) |
| Date of Birth: | 1954 |
| Place of Birth: | Vitsebsk voblast |
Aleksandr Lukashenko (Belarusian: Аляксандр Рыгоравіч Лукашэнка, Alyaksandr Rygoravitch Lukashenka, Russian: Александр Григорьевич Лукашенко, Aleksandr Grigoryevitch Lukashenko) is President of the Republic of Belarus from 1994 to present.
Lukashenko was born in a village in the Vitsebsk voblast of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Repubic (now Belarus) in 1954. He graduated from the Mahilyow Teaching Institute and the Belorussian Agricultural Academy. After serving a total of five years in the army, he held a series of minor posts in the Komsomol (Young Communist League). From 1982 through 1990 Lukashenko held leading management and Communist Party posts at state and collective farms and a construction materials plant combine.
He was elected to the Supreme Soviet (parliament) in 1990. In the parliament he created a faction called Communists for Democracy. He was the only deputy to oppose the December 1991 agreement that effectively dissolved the Soviet Union. He maintained a close association with leftist Communist factions. Within the Supreme Soviet, he held a position of chairman of the anti-corruption committee.
In 1994 he emphatically winned the runoff presidential election on July 10 against Prime Minister Vyacheslav Kebich, a man who had significant influence both in the Cabinet of Ministers (Ministers Soviet) and in parliament (Supreme Soviet). This result was surprising to many, especially considering Lukashenko's relatively young age as compared against the later traditions of the former Soviet Union.
In November 1996 the President's term was prolonged by referendum.
In September 2001, President Lukashenko was reelected, see "Reelection" below.
Lukashenko came to power by winning a presidential landslide election victory in 1994. Something of a novice in the affairs of state, Lukashenko was a populist outsider known to the population only because of his role as chairman of the parliamentary commission on corruption. A former state-owned farm manager seen as a man of the people, he unexpectedly beat a pillar of the former communist establishment. During the campaign, he propagated a single message: a return to a clean government; removal of corrupt officials from office and bringing to trial those who had abused their position; and moving the country closer to its Russian neighbor in orientation.
Throughout the former communist states of Eastern Europe, ex- or pro-communists such as Lukashenko were returning to power in a wave of backlash against reform. Impoverished and marginalized, ordinary citizens, especially elderly pensioners and fixed-income laborers, had grown increasingly disillusioned with economic reforms, contributing to growing nostalgia for the Soviet Union and its strong social safety nets and the electoral strength of pro-Communists such as Lukashenko.
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Belorussians and Russians saw their Soviet-era savings liquidated overnight due to the lifting of price controls. Before Lukashenko's election, most fixed-income wage earners—the vast majority of the workforce—did not enjoy the promises of capitalism's well-stocked shelves, but in fact could afford to buy little, if anything. Workers in state-owned industries (SOEs), once propped up by high Soviet-era subsides, were often out of work or subject to wage arrears.
Lukashenko received 45% of the vote in the frenzied and bitter first-round election campaign with six candidates on June 23. The favored candidate, the prime minister, received only 17 percent. In the run-off election Lukahsneko received an overwhelming, decisive victory. His anticorruption, pro-Russian message enabled him to capture 80.1% of the vote in the second round.
Lukashenko, a youthful politician just shy of age 40, won substantial popular support due to his proclaimed opposition to privatization and market reformers. As president, one of his first acts was doubling the minimum wage. He also ended the draconian price rises that had been occurring. However, he kept some pro-market politicians in high office. Lukashenko might thus be best characterized as a gradualist reformer with a clear preference for a strong executive presidency. He was also committed to economic and monetary union with Russia and possibly political union, resonating with voters nostalgic for Soviet times. Many Belorussians have family in Russia or other ties and find the greater regulations on travel to neighboring Russia or Ukraine an inconvenience.
Lukashenko has long pledged to spare Belorussians from the burden of Russian-style shock therapy and stabilization. ("Stabilization" is a harsh austerity regime that seeks to counteract the inflation opened up by the structural reforms by drastic cuts in government expenditures, increasing taxes, extremely high interest rates (going from 20, 30, 40, to 50 percent), cutting subsidies, and opening the market to foreign trade so that foreign products can compete with domestic ones.) In Russia the number of the early-losers of the reform process far exceed the early-winners. As president, Lukashenko takes pride in contrasting Belarus' stability to Russian instability.
Belarus, is labelled as 'Europe's last dictatorship' by much of the West because of Lukashenko's autoritarian government, total control of media in the country, and weak opposition. Western governments cite Lukashenko's beliefs in an authoritarian style of government, which he believes is the only alternative to instability, especially evident in the soaring rates of crime in an impoverished Russia and powerful networks of organized crime known as the "Russian mafia."
In 1995 the president's administration issued an order requiring the approval of printing firm publishing contracts by the Main Administration of the Office of Socio-Political Information. Since then the opposition prints their major newspapers in Lithuania. Lukashenko, however, claims that he has only targeted non-government organizations that have been front end for the efforts of the West to overthrow his government.
Lukashenko resists the pressure of IMF, World Bank, and USA for bolder economical reforms. He justifies this by lack of interest in putting state-owned assets on the block to be snapped up by Western investors looking to make a quick profit.
Despite efforts by the Belorussian opposition to discredit his government, Lukashenko appears to have sufficient public support. He remains popular at home, partly for his efforts to hold together the social welfare net and stifle the economic turmoil that accompanied the 1991 Soviet collapse. These efforts have gained him almost unanimous support of the elderly population, which is a significant part of the active electorate in Belarus.
Lukahsenko, then 47, campaigned for reelection in September 2001 on promises to boost living standards, farming and industry over the next five years. He has also pushed for a full merger with Russia, instead of the loose union that exists now. He still tells many ordinary Belorussians what they want to hear: the country will have no truck with Russian-style shock therapy; order will be maintained, and Belarus will continue to grow closer to Russia. Pensions and salaries may be meagre, but for now they continue to be paid on time. Today, Belarus touts one of the lowest Gini coefficients in the world, indicating one of the world's most egalitarian distributions of wealth. Even though the opposition has finally consolidated around a single candidate, Lukashenko won in the first round.
Lukashenko is a sports fanatic, especially of soccer and hockey. Not yet 50 and known for his promotion of physical fitness, he does not smoke or drink, and is very active. He has served as chairman of the Belorussian Olympic Committee, despite the International Olympic Committee rules theoretically precluding high state officials from holding such a post. On one occasion, he even declined to meet a delegation from the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe on the grounds that he had an important soccer match to attend.