Parliamentary Elections Made Belarus a «Unique» Country, German Ambassador Says

September’s parliamentary elections have made Belarus a “unique” country, German Ambassador Gebhardt Weiss said in an interview with BelaPAN.

Gebhardt Weiss According to the diplomat, “there’s no other country in Europe” where there are no opposition politicians in the parliament and so few candidates take part in parliamentary elections.

Mr. Weiss said that the new House of Representatives may include more competent people, “including from the provinces.” He noted that “modernization and efficient management are seriously connected with certain decentralization of power coupled with elements of local self-government.”

The ambassador called for a thorough study into why the vote had not been transparent despite promises by Belarus’ top officials. “And it’s interesting to me whether they [the elections] will be analyzed in the framework of a new form of internal political dialogue. I believe that the opposition’s wish to take part in the dialogue on the matter is understandable and legitimate,” he said.

Mr. Weiss pointed to Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s remarks about “certain mistakes made during the elections.” “If a politician uses such words consciously, he may mean that he wants to work on this,” he said.

German ambassador said that the Belarusian authorities had made progress on human rights in the past few months. “Apart from this, it seems to us that certain government appointments indicate the authorities’ desire to more consistently continue the course of necessary strategic modernization in a way that would draw support from various parties, including the West,” he said.

The diplomat noted that the abolition of the European Union’s sanctions targeting a group of top Belarusian officials was more likely after the release of all political prisoners and September’s parliamentary elections in Belarus. The West seeks to secure warmer relations with Belarus “through step-by-step normalization” inside the country, Mr.Weiss said.

After Belarus’ parliamentary elections, which OSCE observers described as an improvement on the previous campaigns but still criticized, “Minsk, Brussels and Washington still speak about the need for dialogue and adequate cooperation,” the ambassador said.

Noting that Belarus the West should have “transparent” dialogue, Mr. Weiss said that “the implementation of certain proposals and requirements of the EU would serve the interests of the entire region, including Russia and Belarus.”