Police, protesters clash after election in Belarus
MINSK, Belarus — Phalanxes of Belarusian police in full riot gear violently dispersed thousands of demonstrators who poured into the streets to challenge the early count from Sunday’s presidential election, which indicated that the longtime authoritarian leader had won a sixth term by a landslide.
The brutal crackdown that began late Sunday and lasted through the night followed a tense campaign that saw massive rallies against President Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the former Soviet nation with an iron hand for 26 years.
Election officials declared that early returns show Lukashenko, 65, winning with more than 80% of the vote, while the main challenger, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, a former English teacher and political novice, had about 8%.
Tsikhanouskaya rejected the official claims, saying, “I will believe my own eyes — the majority was for us.”
Thousands of her supporters took to the streets of the capital to protest what they saw as official manipulations of the vote. They faced rows of riot officers in black uniforms who moved quickly to disperse the demonstrators, firing flash-bang grenades and beating them with truncheons.
After breaking up the crowds, police relentlessly chased smaller groups of protesters across downtown Minsk for several hours.
Several other cities across Belarus saw similar crackdowns on protesters.
Interior Ministry spokeswoman Olga Chemodanova said police efforts to restore order were continuing overnight. She wouldn’t say how many people had been detained.
Ales Bialiatski of the Viasna human rights group told the Associated Press that several hundred were detained and hundreds injured in the crackdown.
An AP journalist was beaten by police and treated at a hospital. Three journalists from the independent Russian TV station Dozhd were detained after interviewing an opposition figure and were deported.
At Minsk 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 a 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.”
Lukashenko was defiant as he voted earlier in the day, warning that the opposition would meet a tough response.
Tensions had been rising for weeks ahead of Sunday’s vote. Two prominent challengers were denied spots 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.