A protester speaks to police as they block the highway throughout a rally after the Belarusian presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020. Police and protesters clashed in Belarus’ capital and the foremost metropolis of Brest on Sunday after the presidential election by which the authoritarian chief who has dominated for a quarter-century sought a sixth time period in workplace. (AP Picture/Sergei Grits)
MINSK, Belarus – Election officers in Belarus stated Monday that the nation’s longtime authoritarian chief Alexander Lukashenko has received his sixth consecutive presidential time period, taking on 80% of the votes. Human rights teams stated one individual was killed and dozens have been injured in a police crackdown on protests that adopted Sunday’s vote.
The nation’s central election fee introduced on Monday that each one the ballots have been counted and Lukashenko took 80.23% of the votes, whereas his foremost opposition challenger Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya had solely 9.9%.
The announcement could exacerbate tensions with opposition supporters, who consider the outcomes of the vote have been rigged and plan to collect in Minsk for extra protests on Monday night.
Hundreds of individuals took to the streets in plenty of Belarusian cities and cities on Sunday evening, protesting the early depend suggesting Lukashenko’s landslide victory.
Tsikhanouskaya, a former English trainer and political novice, rejected the official figures, saying “I’ll consider my very own eyes — the bulk was for us.”
Her supporters shortly took to the streets of the capital to protest what they noticed as official manipulation of the vote. They confronted rows of riot police in black uniforms who moved shortly to disperse the demonstrators, firing flash-bang grenades and beating them with truncheons.
The brutal crackdown adopted a tense marketing campaign that noticed huge rallies towards Lukashenko, who has dominated the ex-Soviet nation with an iron fist for 26 years. Lukashenko has not but commented on the election outcomes or the protests.
A number of different cities throughout the nation noticed comparable crackdowns on protesters. In keeping with the Viasna human rights group, greater than 200 protesters have been detained, dozens sustained accidents and one died as the results of the clashes with police.
Inside Ministry spokeswoman Olga Chemodanova stated that police efforts to revive order have been persevering with in a single day, however wouldn’t say how many individuals have been detained. On Monday morning, Belarus’ Investigative Committee opened a felony probe into mass riots and violence towards cops.
“What has occurred is terrible,” Tsikhanouskaya instructed reporters Sunday.
An AP journalist was overwhelmed by police and handled at a hospital.
At Minsk’s Hospital No. 10, an AP reporter noticed a dozen ambulances delivering protesters with fragmentation wounds and cuts from stun grenades and different accidents.
“It was a peaceable protest, we weren’t utilizing power,” stated 23-year-old protester Pavel Konoplyanik, who was accompanying his buddy who had a plastic grenade fragment caught in his neck. “Nobody will consider within the official outcomes of the vote, they’ve stolen our victory.”
Konoplyanik, whose legs have been additionally reduce by fragments of police grenades, stated he doesn’t need to depart the nation however fears that he might need no different selection.
Two distinguished opposition challengers have been denied locations on the poll, however Tsikhanouskaya, the spouse of a jailed opposition blogger, managed to unite opposition teams and draw tens of hundreds to her marketing campaign rallies, tapping rising anger over a stagnant economic system and fatigue with Lukashenko’s autocratic rule.
Lukashenko was defiant as he voted earlier within the day, warning that the opposition will meet a tricky response.
“In the event you provoke, you’re going to get the identical reply,” he stated. “Do you need to attempt to overthrow the federal government, break one thing, wound, offend, and count on me or somebody to kneel in entrance of you and kiss them and the sand onto which you wandered? This is not going to occur.”
Three journalists from the impartial Russian TV station Dozhd have been detained after interviewing an opposition determine and have been deported.
The Group for Safety and Cooperation in Europe, whose assessments of elections are broadly considered authoritative, was not invited to ship observers.
Tsikhanouskaya had crisscrossed the nation, tapping into public frustration with a worsening economic system and Lukashenko’s swaggering response to the pandemic.
Belarus, a rustic of 9.5 million individuals, has reported greater than 68,500 coronavirus circumstances and 580 deaths however critics have accused authorities of manipulating the figures to downplay the demise toll.
Lukashenko has dismissed the virus as “psychosis” and declined to use measures to cease its unfold, saying a lockdown would have doomed the already weak economic system. He introduced final month that he had been contaminated however had no signs and recovered shortly, allegedly due to taking part in sports activities.
But for some voters, Lukashenko’s lengthy, onerous line rule was a plus.
“He’s an skilled politician, not a housewife who appeared out of nowhere and muddied the waters,” retiree Igor Rozhov stated Sunday. “We want a robust hand that won’t permit riots.”
Related Press journalists Jim Heintz, Vladimir Isachenkov and Daria Litvinova in Moscow contributed to this story.