RARE PRIVATE ENTERPRISE

For 31-year-old Alessia, who wouldn't give her surname because she works at Lida's city hall, a change is exactly what the country needs.

"I would finally find out what democracy means," she said, buying a pink plastic doll for her 5-year old for Christmas. "I was still very young when he (Lukashenko) came to power and now I'm not that young, but I still don't know what it means to live in a democracy."

She said she planned to vote for dissident politician Nikolai Statkevich, a retired colonel who heads a social democrat party.

Others think differently -- even in Lida.

Andrey Semyonovich, 40, runs his own retail shop, a rarity in Belarus where more than 80 percent of the economy is in state hands. He said rules for those outside the government sector were clear under Lukashenko and he didn't want to risk change.