- Opposition parties in Belarus failed to win a single seat in parliamentary elections seen as a test of the former Soviet state's democracy
- The voter turnout was 75.3%, according to the Central Elections Commission
Protesters in Minsk after the parliamentary elections
Sep.30.- The full results indicated that all 110 seats would go to supporters of the autocratic President, Alexander Lukashenko, who Washington dubs "Europe's last dictator".
"Not a single opposition candidate was elected, at least not among those represented by the parties", Central Elections Commission chief Lidia Yermoshina told a news conference.
Hundreds of opposition activists gathered in the capital Minsk late on Sunday to condemn the polls as a "farce" and urged international observers not to recognise the outcome.
Both the US and Western monitors on Monday said the election fell short of international standards.
...
After the polls closed, young protesters in Minsk held banners declaring "No to Farce", "Dictatorship Should Go to the Dustbin of History" and "No to Russian Military Bases".
They also waved flags of the European Union and orange ones mirroring those used in the pro-Western Orange Revolution in neighbouring Ukraine in 2004.
Earlier, a coalition of anti-Lukashenko groups criticised the election as undemocratic ...
[ Full text ]
|
