BELARUS: President Alexander Lukashenko, the man dubbed "Europe's last dictator", is hopeful that supporters will flock to the nation's parliament tomorrow and give him the green light to run again.
Mr Lukashenko has ruled the country's 10 million people with an iron-fist since 1994, and looks set to triumph in parliamentary polls and a referendum that critics at home and abroad say will be as heavily rigged as all his other election victories.
He was the only member of parliament to oppose the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 and today he still counts on the support of pensioners who share his nostalgia of the Soviet era.
In the run up to the elections he has increased pensions and the minimum wage while in the past two years he has overseen something of an economic recovery, largely thanks to oil-driven growth in neighbouring Russia, Belarus' biggest trading and political partner.
But more than 40 per cent of Belarussians still live below the poverty line, and the few independent businesses trading complain of constant state harassment.
"On October 17th, vote for Belarus!" boomed the state-run Sovyetskaya Belorusia newspaper, carrying a photograph of Mr Lukashenko holding a young girl wearing the traditional red scarf of the Soviet Union's youth movement.
A dozen opposition newspapers have been fined or shut down in recent months, while national radio and television are state-controlled. Only last week, an activist was jailed for displaying a poster that read: "Lukashenko: No!"
More than 100 of the 110 deputies in the last parliament backed Mr Lukashenko and he expects an even better showing this time, insisting that a vote to let him continue his presidency after 2006 is a vote for stability in the country.
"The authorities have already determined the results for each region, all this is a formality. Lukashenko is above the law and the constitution," said opposition leader Mr Anatoly Lebedko, who is threatened with a jail term for allegedly slandering his rival.
Stifled dissent at home and critics in the EU and US accuse him of flouting human rights and rigging elections in a bid to stay in power. He is also accused of failing to investigate the disappearance of several opponents and journalists.
Meanwhile, European Parliament election observers have lobbied EU foreign relations chief, Mr Chris Patten, to fund a radio station in a neighbouring member-state to deliver more objective news and information to Belarussians.