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The most important issue this week for those concerned about the future of democracy is the forthcoming election in Belarus where, for the first time after a quarter century of stagnation, the opposition has a chance to defeat the colourless strongman Lukashenka. 1/5
Lukashenka came into office with almost no qualifications; he had run a collective farm (by all accounts, badly) for a few years in the late 1980s. He campaigned in 1994 on an anti-corruption platform. In 2010 (& other occasions), he cheated. Now the tables are turning. 2/5
By almost every measure - failure to implement necessary reforms, graft, isolation, repression - he has deprived ten million Belarusians of the ability to fulfil their potential. The contrast with neighbouring Poland, Baltic states & especially post-2014 Ukraine is striking. 3/5
Yet international support for democracy in Belarus remains tentative, at best. A joint US, EU & UK statement in June was followed by crickets. Canada, a strong supporter of democracy in Ukraine, but has been tongue-tied on #Belarus & indulgent of dictators almost everywhere. 4/5
Today activists & journalists in #Belarus are facing arrest; voters & observers are being intimidated; vote-rigging looms; a nation's future hangs in the balance. Democracies can lift each other up, when they choose to act strongly, together, on principle. Now's the time. 5/5
