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Embassy bewildered by Lukashenka’s statement about US presidential election

The US embassy is bewildered by Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s statement that presidential candidates in the United States were jailed for a mere attempt to compete against Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, a spokesperson for the embassy told BelaPAN.

“The statement made on November 12 bewildered us because people in the United States are not jailed for running for public office,” the spokesperson said. “We continue to call for the release of all political prisoners in Belarus, including former presidential candidate Mikalay Statkevich."

While meeting with students and faculty at Belarusian State Economic University in Minsk on November 12, Mr. Lukashenka said: “There were 23 or 25 presidential candidates in America. Do you know them? You only heard of Obama and Romney, didn’t you? The rest were thrown into prison for a mere attempt at disputing with these two whales. This is what their democracy is all about. And yet they come to our country and, with their sleeves rolled up, try to impose their own rules on us and teach us. They should not do that, we will conduct elections ourselves.” // BelaPAN