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Alexander Lukashenko called demonstrators "sheep" under foreign control and vowed not to allow the country "to be torn apart," after widespread protests greeted his victory in the Belarus presidential election.
Opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has rejected the election result, which handed Lukashenko a sixth successive term – and other European countries have expressed their concerns about the poll's validity and the strength of the government's reaction to the subsequent protests.
The central election commission said Lukashenko won 80 percent of the vote in Sunday's poll, while Tikhanovskaya took just 9.9 percent. However, Tikhanovskaya claimed the process was rigged and warned that protests, which turned bloody on Sunday, would continue.
The German foreign ministry has voiced "strong doubts" about the election, with a spokesman saying there were numerous indications of fraud, that minimum standards were not adhered to and that the European Union was discussing how to react.
The foreign ministry in Poland, Belarus's western neighbor, with which it shares a 400-kilometer border, said its prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, had called for a special European Union summit on Belarus. The ministry condemned the force with which Belarusian authorities had responded to the protests and called upon its neighbor "to start respecting fundamental human rights."
Foreign observers have not judged an election to be free and fair in Belarus since 1995 and in the run-up to the vote, authorities jailed Lukashenko's rivals and opened criminal investigations into others who voiced opposition.
Russia's RIA news agency cited the Belarusian interior ministry as saying on Monday that police had detained around 3,000 people at Sunday's post-election protests.
Presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, pictured at a press conference on 10 August, says the election was rigged and that protests will continue. /Sergei Gapon/AFP
Tikhanovskaya, a former English teacher who emerged from obscurity to become the president's main rival after her blogger husband was jailed, told reporters in Minsk that she considered herself the election winner. She said the election had been rigged.
Her aides said the opposition wanted a vote recount at polling stations where there were problems. They also said the opposition wanted to hold talks with authorities about how to bring about a peaceful change of power.
Lukashenko has ruled the country since 1994 but is facing his biggest challenge in years to keep his grip on power. There is disenchantment in some quarters over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy and his patchy human rights record.
Tikhanovskaya's campaign rallies drew some of the biggest crowds since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Lukashenko's attempts to crack down on protests could hurt his wider effort to mend relations with the West amid fraying ties with its eastern neighbor and traditional ally Russia, which has tried to press Belarus into closer economic and political union.
After casting his vote on Sunday, Lukashenko denied imposing repressive measures as "fake news or far-fetched accusations."
(REUTERS)
