In Washington’s first comments, a State Department official underlined that the pre-election campaign had been ‘inconsistent’ with democracy.
The withering Western response came hours after official results pronounced Mr Lukashenko winner with 82.6 per cent of the vote and opposition leaders demanded new elections.
But in a sign of growing East-West tensions over election practices in former Soviet territories, Russia and a coalition of ex-Soviet states denounced Western pressure.
Moscow said the legitimacy of the poll was ‘not in doubt’ and President Vladimir Putin sent his congratulations.
The biggest Western-based monitoring group, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, was categorical.
“The March 19 presidential election does not meet the required international standards for free and fair elections,” said Alcee Hastings, who coordinated the more than 400 OSCE observers during Sunday’s election.
“It is clear that the incumbent president allowed the state authorities to be used in a manner which did not allow free and fair elections,” he said.
Across Europe, officials condemned the intimidation of opposition candidates and suggested the outcome of the vote was rigged, while the head of NATO said Belarussian voters’ rights had been ‘denied’.
“The regime organised this election in a non-democratic way,” said Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz.
“The election was unfair and undemocratic,” Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Swoboda said.
European External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who had warned repeatedly in recent weeks that the EU could toughen sanctions against Belarus, said that “some action is now very likely indeed.”
One option would be to expand the list of Belarus officials subject to visa bans for travel in Europe. Currently the ban applies to six senior leaders.
“We remain convinced that for democracy and democrats in Belarus the climate of winter will not prevail,” said Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, whose country currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency.
European Commission Vice President Guenter Verheugen said that under Mr Lukashenko Belarus had no chance of joining the European Union.
“This country is the last real dictatorship in Europe, and as long as it remains so it cannot be a partner for the European Union,” he said.
The German government said the vote took place ‘in an atmosphere of reprisals and intimidation’ and thus ‘cannot be considered free and fair’.
MOSCOW SLAMS WEST: Europe’s condemnation contrasted sharply with official reaction in Moscow, which has accused the West of trying to influence the result of Belarus’ election.
The vote ‘occurred against a background of unprecedented external pressure’, commented Vladimir Rushailo, who headed a Russian-led election monitoring mission from the Commonwealth of Independent States, which covers most of the ex-Soviet Union.
“The warnings by several states ... of possible political and economic measures are seen by the CIS observers as an attempt to influence the election,” he said, adding that his commission had deemed the vote fair.
And Russia’s foreign ministry said: “There is every reason to believe that the elections were conducted in accordance with recognised standards and the legitimacy of the results is not in doubt.”
Mr Putin sent a message to Lukashenko, telling him the results “demonstrate the confidence of the electorate in your policies,” the Kremlin said.
Sandwiched between the European Union, Russia and Ukraine, Belarus is at the crossroads of a battle for influence between the West and Moscow in nations once part of the Soviet Union. Belarus is one of the few to remain firmly in Moscow’s shadow.
The Council of Europe, a pan-European rights watchdog, described Mr Lukashenko’s re-election as a ‘farce’.
“In a country in which freedom of expression and association are so thoroughly and aggressively suppressed, a vote is not an exercise in democracy, it is a farce,” Terry Davis, secretary general of the Strasbourg-based council, said in a statement.
“Some elections are stolen by tampering with people’s votes, others by tampering with people’s minds through threats, harassment and intimidation.”
Austria’s foreign minister condemned the ‘climate of intimidation’ that hindered the opposition campaigning, and promised a ‘critical assessment’ after reviewing the assessment of the OSCE.—AFP