Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko has been blamed for an overwhelming victory in a presidential election, an official poll said, after a political newcomer posed a historic challenge to the strongman leader.
The poll for state television on Sunday gave Lukashenko 79.7 percent of the vote, with his main challenger Svetlana Tikhanovskaya coming in second with 6.8 percent.
The opposition had said it expected the results to be rigged and some called on Sunday night already for protests. The atmosphere in the capital, Minsk, was tense, with police and special forces on streets and a Soviet-era protest song exploding cars and flats.
Enormous queues were formed outside polling stations in Minsk and other cities before the vote ended at 20:00 local time (17:00 GMT), after Tikhanovskaya urged her supporters to vote late to give authorities less chance to falsify the election.
The first official results were expected later on Sunday. The opposition said it would hold an alternative count.
Step Vaessen of Al Jazeera, reporting from the capital Minsk, said large crowds of people had gathered in the streets.
“The streets and squares are full of people who are all angry, calling the elections an enormous fraud,” she said.
“They are very defiant, but also very scared, because injustice police are in force. They are holding people directly in front of us, so people are dispersing to try to get away from police.”
“They are also angry about the poll that was broadcast on state television after the election and that Lukashenko got 79.7 percent of the vote. Nobody believes this is the real vote because this election is a big one. turnout and tens of thousands of people attended opposition rally
‘I want fair elections’
Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994 and is seeking a sixth term, has warned the opposition that he does not intend to give up his “beloved” Belarus and security was dramatically tightened in the capital on Sunday.
Tikhanovskaya, a 37-year-old English teacher by education and mother staying home, launched a surprise opposition campaign against Lukashenko after her husband, a popular blogger, was jailed and barred from running.
Tens of thousands of supporters attended their rallies and many voters wore white arms of the opposition on Sunday.
“I want fair elections,” she told jubilant supporters outside a polling station in Minsk after a gruesome campaign that saw them see massive crowds across the country.
Many voters expressed their anger at the results of the dropout poll and wanted the strongman leader to stop.
“It is unbearable to have him in power for so many years. The man would have to understand himself that he just has to leave,” said Yuri Kanifatov in Moscow, who voted against Lukashenko.
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Voices in Belarus as protesters rattle off Lukashenko |
Lukashenko portrays himself as a guarantor of stability, but is criticized by the West as dictatorial. Lukashenko says the opposition protesters are in cahoots with foreign supporters to destabilize the country.
Lukashenko promised to keep his order and suggested that his opponents might be planning unrest. “Nothing will get out of control, I guarantee you … what certain people have planned,” he said.
Political observers predicted that Lukashenko would vote in the absence of international observers. He won more than 83 percent in previous polls in 2015.
“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.
The Tikhanovskaya campaign office on Sunday said one of its key allies, Veronika Tsepkalo, had gone to Russia out of concern for her security.
Tsepkalo’s ex-diplomat husband Valery Tsepkalo was prevented from standing. Maria Kolesnikova, campaign chief of former banker Viktor Babaryko, was also dropped from the ballot box and was jailed on Saturday but later released.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
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