Presidential elections are due in Belarus this March and, showing off the country’s democratic and high-tech credentials, each Presidential candidate has launched a campaign website.
Hooray for Belarussian democracy. Well, maybe not.
Although all the sites are working at the moment, there are concerns that, as the election approaches, they may be blocked for internet users within Belarus. br23 blog writes:
On 09/09/2001 a few opposition and independent news sites were blocked inside Belarus. I myself wrote an article about that back in 2001, with the technical details on how the blocking was implemented.
I have absolutely no doubt that on March, 19, and perhaps several days prior and after the election date, quite a few websites will be blocked again. First of all, their entries will most probably be deleted from the Belarus’ root DNS server. Second, our telecom monopolist Beltelecom will probably block the actual incoming traffic from the IP addresses that correspond to those domain names.
br23 blog asks for suggestions as to how internet users in Belarus can circumvent any potential block on opposition candidates websites. If anyone out there who is more technically minded than me has any suggestions, do let him know.
However, in the meantime, probably the best approach is to attempt to stop the government of President Lukashenko from blocking access to the sites in the first place.
The more websites that carry the news that opposition Presidential candidates in Belarus actually have a website, and how President Lukasenko has previously dealt with internet-based opposition, the better.
There is no way Lukashenko can loose the elections. Check the Central Election Committee website http://www.Belarus2006.info/Index and try to vote on-line for anybody but Lukashenko. Enjoy the results.