摘要：This article seeks to answer the question of why the people of Belarus voted Alexander Lukashenko into office for the first time in 1994. Although, there is a significant amount of research on the topic, it remains unclear how the electorate was able navigate and choose between the nearly identical promises of social justice and well-being made by all six candidates for the presidency in 1994. This article explores the texts written in the first years of the country’s independence, from 1991 to 1994, by the Belarusian Popular Front (BFT) and its leader Zianon Paz’niak, and those that appeared on behalf of Lukashenko. The result of close analysis offers an explanation that attempts to decode the “voices” represented in these texts (namely, those of Paz’niak and Lukashenko). These “voices” were an expression of ideologies, which consequently introduced a new political discourse.
关键词：Belarusian opposition; presidential elections of 1994; political communication; discourse analysis
