Minsk, Lukashenko's victory disputed

Official figures declare victory for the leader - already in office for 26 years - with 80% of the votes. The opposition, led by Svetlana Tikhanovskaja, claims 70% of the votes. Clashes in the capital and in other areas of the country. One dead, at least 90 injured: 50 among the population; 40 among the policemen.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, in office for 26 years and for six terms, has reportedly won recent elections with over 80% of the votes, while his main opponent, 37-year-old Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, housewife and wife of a blogger, received less than 10%. The official results were announced yesterday morning by the Electoral Committee, according to which turnout exceeded 84%.

The exit poll data declaring Lukashenko’s victory were released the evening of the elections, but they radically contradict those declared by the opposition, according to which Tikhanovskaja would have won with a margin of 70%.

It is difficult to believe both figures: the official ones due to the absolute lack of transparency in the voting and scrutiny procedures, and the alternative ones due to the lack of clarity in the methodology upon which they are based.

However, Tikhanovskaya’s ca,paign committee have declared that they will not accept the official results, as "they do not adhere to reality and are contrary to all common sense", as stated by the candidate's spokesperson, Anna Krasulina. According to observers linked to the opposition, Tikhanovskaya would have won in at least 85 polling stations, most of them in the capital Minsk.

In many cases the observers were not allowed to enter the polling stations, and in many others the participation rate was enormously inflated. Tikhanovskaya’s committee has the data from about 300 seats out of 6000. Moreover, it is not the first time that the opposition has claimed fraud, denounced in almost all the previous elections in Belarus.

After the vote was over, mass protests began in the major cities of Belarus. It is difficult to quantify the numbers of participants, also due to the continuous blackouts of internet nationwide. Most of the protesters gathered in the streets of the capital Minsk, where the crowd was violently dispersed by the Omon, the assault police.

Demonstrators tried to set up barricades with garbage bins; with the support of motorists they blocked the roads, and responded to police charges by throwing stones, bottles and torches. At around 3 am the situation returned relatively calm, even in other cities. The protesters withdrew shouting: See you tomorrow! And in fact, even last night there were clashes between police and demonstrators.

At least one of the demonstrators allegedly lost his life under a police vehicle (photo 3). But the police deny the incident. At least 50 people were injured and 40 policemen. The injured include a journalist from Meduza, Maksim Solopov, whose reports were interrupted at 1.30 am. The next morning, other journalists reported that Solopov "very badly beaten". In all, the police arrested about 3000 overnight, in 32 cities of the country, mostly on charges of "violence against members of the police", a crime that includes a penalty from 8 to 15 years.

Tikhanovskaja had gathered the opposition three weeks before the vote, after the candidates Valerij Tsepkalo and Viktor Babariko, who were refused registration by the Electoral Committee, and were eliminated. Babariko's staff coordinator Maria Kolesnikova and Tsepkalo's wife Veronika joined forces with Tikhanovskaya. Three women (photo 2) thus faced the 65-year-old Batka Lukashenko, in power since 1994, who has repeatedly made it clear that one day he would love to hand over power to one of his sons (the eldest, Viktor, is already on the blacklist of Western sanctions; the most presentable is 40-year-old Dmitry).

Svetlana Tikhanovskaja declared that she felt the winner of the elections, in which "we all defeated our fears", and called on Lukashenko to start negotiations to regulate the situation in the country avoiding more serious conflicts, urging her supporters to avoid violence.

• russia
• belarus
• economy
• elections
• dictatorship
• eternal leaders
• vladimir putin
• alexandr lukashenko
• minsk
• protests
• svetlana tikhanovskaja