Opponents of newly elected President Alexander Lukashenko faced a crucial test of strength yesterday, planning a second protest against a vote the government said had handed the authoritarian incumbent a new five-year term by a massive margin.
Lukashenko, who has ruled with an iron hand since 1994, won a "commanding victory" with 82.6 percent, according to a complete preliminary ballot count, Central Election Commission chief Lidiya Yermoshina said. Main opposition candidate Alexander Milinkevich received 6 percent, she said.
Addressing a crowd of thou-sands waving flags and shouting for freedom in a central Minsk square after polls closed on Sunday, Milinkevich dismissed the vote as a farce and called for "new, honest elections" in the former Soviet republic.
PHOTO: AP
Several thousand people massed in Oktyabrskaya Square, heeding Milinkevich's calls for a peaceful protest and defying a government ban on election day rallies that had raised fears of a potentially violent confrontation.
Milinkevich and the other opposition candidate, Alexander Kozulin, called on supporters to return to the square yesterday evening -- signaling a bid to hold a sustained protest like those that brought opposition leaders to power in other ex-Soviet republics including neighboring Ukraine.
The authorities made no move to disperse protesters on Sunday, but busloads of riot police idling on a nearby street were a silent reminder of the government's threats of a decisive response.
The crowd was the biggest the opposition had mustered in years, reaching at least 10,000, according to reporters' estimates. After about three hours, a smaller group marched to nearby Victory Square, some laying carnations at a monument there before dispersing around midnight.
"Tomorrow we will show the world our might!" said Kozulin, who the elections chief said received 2.3 percent of the vote. He demanded the release of what he said were hundreds of opposition activists detained during a campaign marred by heavy-handed government harassment.
Meanwhile, the EU said yesterday that the presidential election in Belarus was marred by a "climate of intimidation."
Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said the opposition in the former Soviet republic "was systematically intimidated" in campaigning for Sunday's presidential elections in which President Alexander Lukashenko was declared the winner with an overwhelming majority.
But the head of the observer mission of a grouping of former Soviet states yesterday called the disputed Belarusian presidential election open and transparent.
Rushailo, in a droning statement that lasted more than a half-hour, said the CIS mission's 467 observers concluded that, despite some technical violations, the Sunday elections took place within the requirements of Belarusian law.
A ship that appears to be taking on the identity of a scrapped gas carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, showing how strategies to get through the waterway are evolving as the Middle East war progresses. The vessel identifying as liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier Jamal left the Strait on Friday morning, ship-tracking data show. However, the same tanker was also recorded as having beached at an Indian demolition yard in October last year, where it is being broken up, according to market participants and port agent’s reports. The ship claiming to be Jamal is likely a zombie vessel that
Cannabis-based medicines have shown little evidence of effectiveness for treating most mental health and substance-use disorders, according to a large review of past studies published in a major medical journal on Monday. Medical use of cannabinoids has been expanding, including in the US, Canada and Australia, where many patients report using cannabis products to manage conditions such as anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and sleep problems. Researchers reviewed data from 54 randomized clinical trials conducted between 1980 and May last year involving 2,477 participants for their analysis published in The Lancet. The studies assessed cannabinoids as a primary treatment for mental disorders or substance-use
NATIONWIDE BLACKOUT: US President Donald Trump cut off Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba, strangling the Caribbean island’s already antiquated grid Cuba’s national electric grid collapsed on Monday, the nation’s grid operator said, leaving about 10 million people without power amid a US-imposed oil blockade that has crippled the already obsolete generation system. Grid operator UNE on social media said that it is investigating the causes of the blackout, the latest in a series of widespread outages that last for hours or days and that this weekend sparked a rare violent protest in the communist-run nation. Officials ruled out a major power plant failure, but had still not pinpointed the root cause of the grid collapse, suggesting a problem with transmission. Officials said that
CONSERVING FUEL: State institutions are to operate only four days a week starting tomorrow, with the measures also applying to schools and universities Sri Lanka on Monday announced a shorter working week to conserve its scarce fuel reserves as it prepares for a prolonged war in the Middle East. The Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway through which about 20 percent of global exports pass in peacetime, has been effectively closed by Iran in retaliation over the US and Israeli war against it, now in its third week. Sri Lankan Commissioner-General of Essential Services Prabath Chandrakeerthi said state institutions would operate only four days a week starting tomorrow. The new austerity measures would also apply to schools and universities, and would remain in place indefinitely. “We are
RSS