VOA标准英语10月-Recent Belarus Parliamentary Elections Not Up To

In September parliamentary elections were held in Belarus. In this report from Washington, VOA Senior Correspondent André de Nesnera looks at what the results mean for the political life in the former Soviet¹ republic, governed by authoritarian² president Alexander Lukashenko.
　

President Alexander Lukashenko speaks to media after voting at a polling station in the capital Minsk, 28 Sep 2008

All 110 seats in the Belarus parliament were contested, with 78 opposition³ candidates appearing on the ballot⁴. But when the final tally⁵ was counted, not a single candidate opposed to President Alexander Lukashenko won a seat.

International observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe say the election fell short of democratic standards.

Klas Bergman was one of the OSCE observers. "Negative aspects were, of course, an election campaign which was extremely controlled - very little actual debate, very little campaigning in a free, democratic sense," he said. "On election day, the voting largely took place in a well-organized and calm atmosphere."

"We were well received at almost all of the polling stations where we sent observers - if not all of them. The big drawback came as the polls closed and when vote counting started - that's when we encountered a lot of problems," he added.

Bergman says the key problem was access to the vote count. "The fact that we could not really oversee⁶ how the counting was done and how it proceeded," he said. "Some of the observers were actually prevented from overviewing the vote count and we have some incidences of falsifications."

Before the vote, President Lukashenko said the balloting⁷ would be unprecedented⁸ in its fairness. But the OSCE said that was not the case, indicating the vote counting process was bad or very bad in 48 percent of polling stations visited.

But Russia praised the elections and criticized the OSCE assessment⁹. President Lukashenko told OSCE observers that the elections were conducted in line with Belarusian law.
　

Opposition activists10 protest against the parliamentary elections shortly after polling closed, in the Belarusian capital Minsk, 28 Sep 2008

David Marples, from the University of Edmonton [in Alberta, Canada] says with no opposition to speak of in parliament, that body is in essence a rubber-stamp legislature, agreeing to every policy presented by Mr. Lukashenko.

"Back in 1996, when the constitution was amended¹¹, parliament really has played a secondary role to the presidency¹² in the political life of Belarus," said Marples. "The president has the most powerful position - he can replace the prime minister. It is more of a talking shop, in other words, the parliament."

"But nevertheless, as a kind of facade¹³ of the political life, it gives an impression that Belarus does have some form of legislature where debates can take place and laws can be discussed. So I think it is kind of important for a president to retain a parliament - but obviously he does not want opposition members in this parliament," he continued.

Since coming to power in 1994, Mr. Lukashenko has governed Belarus with an iron fist, controlling the press, severely¹⁴ limiting opposing activities and cracking down on any form of dissent¹⁵.

Columbia University's Robert Legvold says the repression¹⁶ of human rights is even felt in universities. "The establishment of almost an ideological¹⁷ test within universities - that is universities had to conform to the standards and the agenda and the objectives - the political objectives - of the regime," he said.

"And over the years, going back to 1996, there have been constant struggles over the repression: if there are demonstrations¹⁸ of a few hundred people, heads are cracked and people are arrested. The most recent serious set of concerns or next to the most recent, were the elections in March 2006 where there were large crowds that assembled - it began to look a little bit like the 'color revolutions' [Georgia, Ukraine], at least in Lukashenko's mind - and that was repressed," he added.

Because of Mr. Lukashenko's repressive measures, western governments have described Belarus as the last dictatorship in Europe. Analysts¹⁹ say the recent parliamentary elections indicate very little has changed in that former Soviet republic.

1 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

2 authoritarian   

n./adj.专制(的)，专制主义者，独裁主义者

参考例句：

• Foreign diplomats suspect him of authoritarian tendencies.各国外交官怀疑他有着独裁主义倾向。
• The authoritarian policy wasn't proved to be a success.独裁主义的政策证明并不成功。

3 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

4 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

5 tally   

n.计数器，记分，一致，测量；vt.计算，记录，使一致；vi.计算，记分，一致

参考例句：

• Don't forget to keep a careful tally of what you spend.别忘了仔细记下你的开支账目。
• The facts mentioned in the report tally to every detail.报告中所提到的事实都丝毫不差。

6 oversee   

vt.监督，管理

参考例句：

• Soldiers oversee the food handouts.士兵们看管着救济食品。
• Use a surveyor or architect to oversee and inspect the different stages of the work.请一位房产检视员或建筑师来监督并检查不同阶段的工作。

7 balloting   

v.（使）投票表决( ballot的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Clark took a commanding leading in the early balloting. 在最初投票时，克拉克遥遥领先。 来自辞典例句
• The balloting had stagnated, he couldn't win. 投票工作陷于停顿，他不能得胜。 来自辞典例句

8 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

9 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

10 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 Amended   

adj. 修正的 动词amend的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He asked to see the amended version. 他要求看修订本。
• He amended his speech by making some additions and deletions. 他对讲稿作了些增删修改。

12 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

13 facade   

n.(建筑物的)正面，临街正面；外表

参考例句：

• The entrance facade consists of a large full height glass door.入口正面有一大型全高度玻璃门。
• If you look carefully,you can see through Bob's facade.如果你仔细观察，你就能看穿鲍勃的外表。

14 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

15 dissent   

n./v.不同意，持异议

参考例句：

• It is too late now to make any dissent.现在提出异议太晚了。
• He felt her shoulders gave a wriggle of dissent.他感到她的肩膀因为不同意而动了一下。

16 repression   

n.镇压，抑制，抑压

参考例句：

• The repression of your true feelings is harmful to your health.压抑你的真实感情有害健康。
• This touched off a new storm against violent repression.这引起了反对暴力镇压的新风暴。

17 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

18 demonstrations   

证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威

参考例句：

• Lectures will be interspersed with practical demonstrations. 讲课中将不时插入实际示范。
• The new military government has banned strikes and demonstrations. 新的军人政府禁止罢工和示威活动。

19 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。