Lukashenko wins Belarus vote, mass protests by opposition - Summary

Sun, 19 Dec 2010

Minsk - Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko won re- election Sunday, exit polls showed, as more than 20,000 opposition activists defied a government ban and took the streets in protest.

The demonstrators gathered in central Minsk, waving red-and-white flags to protest Lukashenko's election victory. Some chanted "Long live Belarus!" and "Tell the truth!"

"You can beat us, but you can't frighten us!" said Andrei Dmitriev, an opposition leader.

Police presence was heavy, with troops in riot gear blocking the crowd's movement toward nearby government buildings. Police orders to disperse met demonstrator jeers.

Lukashenko had threatened police action against anyone who defied a ban on rallies.

The authoritarian leader won re-election with between 72 and 82 per cent of the popular vote, according to exit polls. The victory was achieved by massive vote fraud, according to Lukashenko opponents.

The first violent clash between police and demonstrators took place shortly after polls closed, when riot police using clubs and percussion grenades assaulted a group of opposition activists walking toward Minsk's central Oktober Square.

The group, led by opposition candidate Vladimir Nekljaew was thrown into snow and arrested, the Belapan news agency reported.

Nekljaew was knocked unconscious for some seven minutes, and was later hospitalized with a concussion, according to news reports.

Earlier Sunday, Lukashenko told Belapan that he would not hesitate to order police to break up "illegal" public gatherings.

"What awaits supporters of the protest demonstrations? Read our laws," Lukashenko said. "Everything will be as per our laws - and that goes for security as well. There is not going to be any demonstration."

Voting during the day appeared to run smoothly, and the Central Elections Committee reported heavy turnout at 84 per cent.

But reports of government intimidation and even attacks against opposition activists were widespread.

Members of the observation group For Fair Elections alleged that authorities on Sunday cut off office and telephone access in retaliation for giving interviews to Western media.

"Our phones just stopped working after we talked with Voice of America," said Sergei Kaliakin, a spokesman for the group.

More than 1,000 international observers led by a 490-member delegation from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe were in Belarus to monitor the vote. More than 15,000 Belorussian vote monitors were on hand as well.

Lukashenko, a former collective farm boss, had vowed he would defeat his nine challengers without tampering with the electoral process.

But his critics accused him of ordering police to arrest opposition activists and forcing state-controlled media to support him.

"If they (Belarus' opposition) have been complaining about falsification for six months prior to the election, it means they already knew they would lose," Lukashenko said in comments to Interfax.

Police in the capital Minsk and outlying cities detained more than a dozen opposition activists on the eve of the election and as many as a score more on Sunday, according to independent news reports.

Traffic police were checking vehicles traveling to Minsk from outlying regions, and barring some travelers police believed to be en route to the planned Oktober Square rally.

Vitaliy Rymashevskiy, a campaign worker for opposition candidate Yuriy Klimovich, said police in the city of Gomel arrested him and charged him with swearing in public. He denied the allegation, claiming his detention was part of a government intimidation campaign, according to a Belapan report.

Pro-democracy groups have alleged that Lukashenko's government in the run-up to voting day pushed early ballot casting, which took place outside the observation of monitors, with the intention of falsifying the Sunday ballot counts.

Almost one in four Belorussians had cast early ballots before election day, according to data compiled by the Central Election Commission.

Lukashenko rejected possible international criticism of the election's legitimacy.

"Belarus is not going down on her knees before anyone," he said, responding to a reporter's question about his possible fears of international criticism about the vote. "It is for us to run our election."

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/358911,protests-opposition-summary.html.