br23 blog reports on more trouble in the lead-up to the Belarussian Presidential election – this time the arrest of the main opposition candidate’s Deputy head of staff:
Vincuk Viachorka, the deputy Head of Milinkevich’s campaign office in Belarus, who was arrested yesterday, was sentenced today to 15 days of prison by Minsk City court, together with several other top members of Milinkevich’s team. (a bit of math: elections are in 10 days, and he has to spend 14 days more behind bars).
If that’s not clear enough message, I can spell it out for you: our dictator just said “game over.” This is the end of our elections game. Lukashenka was getting too scared, and today he stopped playing cat and mouse with the opposition, because the cat was obviously getting very frightened.
I’m not sure I’d quite agree with the sentiment that it is now ’game over’ for the elections. Viachorka was undoubtedly important to Milinkevich’s presidential campaign, and his arrest will be a setback, but he was just one man. The Milinkevich campaign will continue and – unfortunately – most probably, still lose. But not by any significantly larger a margin than Milinkevich would have lost by had Viachorka still been in post.
Lets hope it is a sign that Lukashenko is getting just a little bit scared, though.