Now that an element of democracy has entered the political equation in Yugoslavia, one European country remains in which an authoritarian regime holds power. To remind observers of this state of affairs, opposition supporters, in the course of Sunday's voting in the election for a new parliament in Belarus, chanted: "Today Milosevic, Tomorrow Lukashenko."
Their slogan appears to have been based on wishful thinking rather than reality. President Alexander Lukashenko, a former collective-farm official, has turned his country into something of a Soviet theme park with all details preserved from the old days of Moscow rule. Passengers arriving at the main railway station in Minsk are greeted by a huge sign which reads: "Glory to the indissoluble union of the hammer and sickle." A giant bust of Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the organisation that was to become the KGB, stands in the centre of the city. Western embassies have accused the authorities of bugging their phones and their premises and, to make matters even more realistic, the occasional food queue can still be seen.
The latest addition to the Soviet theme has been a parliamentary election described by a monitoring group from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe as falling short of meeting the minimum commitments for free, fair, equal, accountable and transparent elections.
Mr Lukashenko would have us believe otherwise. Only two complaints against the way the election was run had been lodged according to the central election commission in a country whose official statistics make claims of "Slavic Tiger" proportions. Growth rates, on paper, of up to over 10 per cent are frequently claimed. A more accurate indicator of the state of the Belarus economy has been the plight of the local rouble which, but for the abolition of a series of zeroes, would be running currently at a rate close to one million to a single US dollar. Even if politicians and parties opposed to Mr Lukashenko had won the majority of seats in the parliament in Sunday's elections nothing would have changed. Mr Lukashenko has been careful to ensure that the parliament's powers are virtually non-existent and that almost all political authority devolves upon himself as president.
It should be admitted, in a close parallel to the situation in Yugoslavia, that Mr Lukashenko does have some political support for his bizarre form of rule from conservative elements in the rural parts of his country. There is also support from these quarters for his plans to unite Belarus with Russia though Moscow appears to be far less enthusiastic than Minsk about this union.
Mr Lukashenko has announced his willingness to give Mr Slobodan Milosevic political asylum following the victory of Mr Vojislav Kostunica in Yugoslavia's presidential elections. It speaks volumes for the current state of affairs in Belarus that Mr Milosevic preferred to stay at home and face the consequences.