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Belarus President claims big election victory as protests erupt
By Yuras Karmanau
Minsk: Belarus' longtime authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko has won his sixth consecutive presidential term, taking more than 80 per cent of the votes in an election some decried as rigged. Human rights groups said one person was killed and dozens were injured in a police crackdown on protests that followed Sunday's election.
The country’s central election commission announced on Monday that all the ballots have been counted and Lukashenko took 80.23 per cent of the votes, while his main opposition challenger Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya had only 9.9 per cent.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has a history of blaming difficulties on foreign meddling.Credit: AP
The announcement may exacerbate tensions with opposition supporters, who believe the results of the vote were fraudulent and planned to gather in Minsk for more protests on Monday evening.
Thousands of people took to the streets in a number of Belarusian cities and towns on Sunday night, protesting the early count suggesting Lukashenko’s landslide victory.
Tsikhanouskaya, a former English teacher and political novice, rejected the official figures, saying “I will believe my own eyes — the majority was for us.”
Presidential candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya casts her ballot in Minsk, Belarus. Credit: AP
Her supporters quickly took to the streets of the capital to protest what they saw as official manipulation of the vote. They faced rows of riot police in black uniforms who moved quickly to disperse the demonstrators, firing flash-bang grenades and beating them with truncheons.
The brutal crackdown followed a tense campaign that saw massive rallies against Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet nation with an iron fist for 26 years. Lukashenko has not yet commented on the election results or the protests.
Several other cities across the country saw similar crackdowns on protesters. According to the Viasna human rights group, more than 200 protesters were detained, dozens sustained injuries and one died as the result of the clashes with police.
Interior Ministry spokeswoman Olga Chemodanova said that police efforts to restore order were continuing overnight, but wouldn’t say how many people were detained. On Monday morning, Belarus’ Investigative Committee opened a criminal probe into mass riots and violence toward police officers.
“What has happened is awful,” Tsikhanouskaya told reporters Sunday.
Police block the road to protect against demonstrators after the Belarusian presidential election in Minsk late on Sunday.Credit: AP
An AP journalist was beaten by police and treated at a hospital.
At Minsk’s Hospital No. 10, an AP reporter saw a dozen ambulances delivering protesters with fragmentation wounds and cuts from stun grenades and other injuries.
“It was a peaceful protest, we weren’t using force,” said 23-year-old protester Pavel Konoplyanik, who was accompanying his friend who had a plastic grenade fragment stuck in his neck. “No one will believe in the official results of the vote, they have stolen our victory.”
Konoplyanik, whose legs were also cut by fragments of police grenades, said he didn’t want to leave the country but feared that he might have no other choice.
Protesters provide first aid to a wounded man during clashes with police after the presidential election in Minsk early on Monday.Credit: AP
Two prominent opposition challengers were denied places on the ballot, but Tsikhanouskaya, the wife of a jailed opposition blogger, managed to unite opposition groups and draw tens of thousands to her campaign rallies, tapping growing anger over a stagnant economy and fatigue with Lukashenko’s autocratic rule.
Lukashenko was defiant as he voted earlier in the day, warning that the opposition would meet a tough response.
“If you provoke, you will get the same answer,” he said. “Do you want to try to overthrow the government, break something, wound, offend, and expect me or someone to kneel in front of you and kiss them and the sand onto which you wandered? This will not happen.”
Three journalists from the independent Russian TV station Dozhd were detained and deported after interviewing an opposition figure.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, whose assessments of elections are widely regarded as authoritative, was not invited to send observers.
Tsikhanouskaya had crisscrossed the country, tapping into public frustration with a worsening economy and Lukashenko’s swaggering response to the pandemic.
Belarus, population 9.5 million, has reported more than 68,500 coronavirus cases and 580 deaths but critics have accused authorities of manipulating the figures to downplay the death toll.
Lukashenko has dismissed the virus as “psychosis” and declined to apply measures to stop its spread, saying a lockdown would have doomed the already weak economy. He announced last month that he had been infected but had no symptoms and recovered quickly, allegedly thanks to playing sports. He also recommended vodka for the virus.
Yet for some voters, Lukashenko’s long, hard line rule was a plus.
“He is an experienced politician, not a housewife who appeared out of nowhere and muddied the waters,” retiree Igor Rozhov said. “We need a strong hand that will not allow riots.”
Al Jazeera's Step Vaessen, reporting from Minsk, said the capital was "a city filled with anger and frustration" and described "hectic scenes" that "Minsk hasn't witnessed before".
"They're very defiant but also very scared because riot police are out in force. They are detaining people right in front of us so people are spreading around trying to get away from police," Vaessen said.
Lukashenko, 65, a former Soviet collective farm boss, faced unprecedented protests against his rule before the vote, after opposition groups united behind Tsikhanouskaya, 37, when other contenders were either jailed or kept off the ballot.
The stay-at-home mother, who ran after her husband Sergei, a political blogger, was detained and barred from the race, drew huge crowds at rallies nationwide.
For the opposition, "the main thing is to accept defeat", Central Election Commission Chairwoman Lidia Yermoshina said of the preliminary results on state TV.
Turnout was 84 per cent, the Tass news service reported, citing the commission, which is due to publish official results on Monday.
The result compares to 83 per cent won by Lukashenko in 2015 elections. Opposition activists have complained that high levels of early voting recorded ahead of polling day was an indicator of ballot fraud.
The European Platform for Democratic Elections reported that observers had been restricted and detained during early voting.
Some observers reported at least one polling place counted more voters than had walked in from the street.
Three other candidates were also on the ballot in the nation of 9.4 million, located between Russia and the NATO states of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
Portraying himself as a guarantor of stability but criticised by the West as dictatorial, Lukashenko says the opposition protesters are in cahoots with foreign backers to destabilise the country.
"Lukashenko a priori made it clear that he intends to retain his power at any cost. The question remains what the price will be," said political analyst Alexander Klaskovsky.
Wedded to a Soviet-style economic model, Lukashenko has struggled to raise incomes and living standards in recent years. He also faced anger over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which he dismissed as a "psychosis" while suggesting drinking vodka and playing ice hockey as remedies.
Tikhanouskaya's rallies have drawn some of the biggest crowds since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, and on Sunday she arrived at a polling station with hundreds of supporters chanting her name.
Human rights groups say more than 1300 people were detained in a crackdown ahead of the election, including independent election observers and members of Tikhanouskaya's campaign team.
After casting his vote, Lukashenko denied imposing repressive measures as "fake news or far-fetched accusations" and said he did not regard Tikhanouskaya's camp as a threat.
"They are not worth enough to carry out any repression against them," he said.
AP, Bloomberg, Reuters