Fonzarelli
03-19-2006, 06:14 PM
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/03/19/belarus.poll.results.ap/index.html
Belarus: Big lead for incumbent
Opposition leader calls for fresh elections
Sunday, March 19, 2006; Posted: 4:41 p.m. EST (21:41 GMT)
MINSK, Belarus (AP) -- The main Belarusian opposition candidate, Alexander Milinkevich, has called for new presidential elections as thousands of his supporters jammed a main square in central Minsk to protest the ballot that authorities said would hand incumbent Alexander Lukashenko a huge victory.
The head of the central election commission, Lidiya Yermoshina, said Lukashenko had won 89 percent of the vote, according to returns from nearly one-fifth of polling districts.
A landslide victory would hand a third term to the authoritarian leader, who has ruled the ex-Soviet republic with an iron fist since 1994.
Milinkevich, called on his supporters to return to a central Minsk square Monday to continue their protest -- signaling the opposition would try to hold a sustained protest of the sort that brought down long-lived regimes in former Soviet republics including Ukraine and Georgia.
"We demand new, honest elections," Milinkevich told the crowd through a small bullhorn. "This was a complete farce."
A crowd of thousands had gathered at Oktyabrskaya Square to protest the vote and rallied for about three hours before demonstrators moved towards another square to place flowers at a monument.
There were fears of violent confrontation as Milinkevich had called on supporters to come to the square to protest the vote, whose official results he said he would not accept. The government had warned that election-day gatherings would not be allowed.
The crowd was the biggest the opposition had mustered in years, reaching at least 10,000, according to AP reporters' estimates.
"Lukashenko cannot have won 80 percent!" said Alexander Kozulin, another opposition candidate, referring to exit polls -- conducted by two groups the opposition says are loyal to the government and released just hours after voting began -- that projected he would win more than 80 percent of the vote.
"Cannot! Cannot! Cannot!" the crowd chanted.
Some waved a national flag that Lukashenko banned in favor of a Soviet-style replacement, as well as EU flags.
At one point, a trolley bus went by with a young man riding on the roof. He pumped his fist in a victory sign, and the crowd roared when he rode off carrying a national flag someone thrust into his hands.
People blew horns and shouted "Mi-lin-ke-vich!" -- echoing the much larger crowds on Kiev's Independence Square in Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution, which has inspired the opposition in neighboring Belarus.
"I came here to find out the real results of the election," said Veronika Danilyuk, 19, a student. "I believe that he (Milinkevich) is the only one who can guarantee freedom and fairness to our country."
"The Belarusian mentality is to sit home and watch their stupid state TV," said another protester, who gave only his first name, Ivan, for fear of reprisals. "I came to hear a brave man speak."
Despite the government ban on protests Sunday, there was no immediate move by police to disperse the crowd. While police closely guarded the hulking building facing the square and temporarily housing the election commission, they did not surround protesters.
"These elections will be recognized neither by us nor by democratic countries," Milinkevich told a news conference earlier in the day.
"In Poland people began laughing at communist authorities and this is when Solidarity won. We are getting there," he said. "I won't be surprised if someone allows himself to claim 120 percent."
Lukashenko has vowed to prevent the kind of mass rallies that helped bring opposition leaders to power in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan following disputed elections, raising the threat of a forceful government response.
The use or threat of force neutralized opposition efforts to protest vote results in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan last year, and a bloody government crackdown in Uzbekistan left hundreds dead.
Earlier, Milinkevich vowed that the demonstration would be peaceful.
"We will come out with flowers," he said after casting his ballot. "We do not intend to elect a president on the square. We will tell people the truth."
The state has mounted a campaign of threats and allegations of violent, foreign-backed overthrow plots that its opponents say is aimed at frightening people off the streets and justifying the potential use of force against protesters.
Western countries have forged close ties with the opposition and made no secret of their contempt for the ruler of what Washington calls an outpost of tyranny in Europe. It condemned the campaign as "seriously flawed and tainted."
While Russia's relations with Belarus are sometimes strained, the Kremlin is wary of losing its only ally between its western border and NATO countries, and has signaled approval of a Lukashenko victory.
Lukashenko dismissed international criticism. "We in Belarus are conducting the election for ourselves," he said. "As for sweeping accusations, I've been hearing them for 10 years. I've already gotten used to them."
A dictator to his critics, many Belarusians see the 51-year-old former collective farm manager as having brought stability after the uncertainty that followed the 1991 Soviet collapse.
Even independent opinion polls suggested Lukashenko, who has pushed through a referendum scrapping term limits and hinted he plans to stay in office indefinitely, would win a majority and avoid a runoff.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Belarus: Big lead for incumbent
Opposition leader calls for fresh elections
Sunday, March 19, 2006; Posted: 4:41 p.m. EST (21:41 GMT)
MINSK, Belarus (AP) -- The main Belarusian opposition candidate, Alexander Milinkevich, has called for new presidential elections as thousands of his supporters jammed a main square in central Minsk to protest the ballot that authorities said would hand incumbent Alexander Lukashenko a huge victory.
The head of the central election commission, Lidiya Yermoshina, said Lukashenko had won 89 percent of the vote, according to returns from nearly one-fifth of polling districts.
A landslide victory would hand a third term to the authoritarian leader, who has ruled the ex-Soviet republic with an iron fist since 1994.
Milinkevich, called on his supporters to return to a central Minsk square Monday to continue their protest -- signaling the opposition would try to hold a sustained protest of the sort that brought down long-lived regimes in former Soviet republics including Ukraine and Georgia.
"We demand new, honest elections," Milinkevich told the crowd through a small bullhorn. "This was a complete farce."
A crowd of thousands had gathered at Oktyabrskaya Square to protest the vote and rallied for about three hours before demonstrators moved towards another square to place flowers at a monument.
There were fears of violent confrontation as Milinkevich had called on supporters to come to the square to protest the vote, whose official results he said he would not accept. The government had warned that election-day gatherings would not be allowed.
The crowd was the biggest the opposition had mustered in years, reaching at least 10,000, according to AP reporters' estimates.
"Lukashenko cannot have won 80 percent!" said Alexander Kozulin, another opposition candidate, referring to exit polls -- conducted by two groups the opposition says are loyal to the government and released just hours after voting began -- that projected he would win more than 80 percent of the vote.
"Cannot! Cannot! Cannot!" the crowd chanted.
Some waved a national flag that Lukashenko banned in favor of a Soviet-style replacement, as well as EU flags.
At one point, a trolley bus went by with a young man riding on the roof. He pumped his fist in a victory sign, and the crowd roared when he rode off carrying a national flag someone thrust into his hands.
People blew horns and shouted "Mi-lin-ke-vich!" -- echoing the much larger crowds on Kiev's Independence Square in Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution, which has inspired the opposition in neighboring Belarus.
"I came here to find out the real results of the election," said Veronika Danilyuk, 19, a student. "I believe that he (Milinkevich) is the only one who can guarantee freedom and fairness to our country."
"The Belarusian mentality is to sit home and watch their stupid state TV," said another protester, who gave only his first name, Ivan, for fear of reprisals. "I came to hear a brave man speak."
Despite the government ban on protests Sunday, there was no immediate move by police to disperse the crowd. While police closely guarded the hulking building facing the square and temporarily housing the election commission, they did not surround protesters.
"These elections will be recognized neither by us nor by democratic countries," Milinkevich told a news conference earlier in the day.
"In Poland people began laughing at communist authorities and this is when Solidarity won. We are getting there," he said. "I won't be surprised if someone allows himself to claim 120 percent."
Lukashenko has vowed to prevent the kind of mass rallies that helped bring opposition leaders to power in Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan following disputed elections, raising the threat of a forceful government response.
The use or threat of force neutralized opposition efforts to protest vote results in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan last year, and a bloody government crackdown in Uzbekistan left hundreds dead.
Earlier, Milinkevich vowed that the demonstration would be peaceful.
"We will come out with flowers," he said after casting his ballot. "We do not intend to elect a president on the square. We will tell people the truth."
The state has mounted a campaign of threats and allegations of violent, foreign-backed overthrow plots that its opponents say is aimed at frightening people off the streets and justifying the potential use of force against protesters.
Western countries have forged close ties with the opposition and made no secret of their contempt for the ruler of what Washington calls an outpost of tyranny in Europe. It condemned the campaign as "seriously flawed and tainted."
While Russia's relations with Belarus are sometimes strained, the Kremlin is wary of losing its only ally between its western border and NATO countries, and has signaled approval of a Lukashenko victory.
Lukashenko dismissed international criticism. "We in Belarus are conducting the election for ourselves," he said. "As for sweeping accusations, I've been hearing them for 10 years. I've already gotten used to them."
A dictator to his critics, many Belarusians see the 51-year-old former collective farm manager as having brought stability after the uncertainty that followed the 1991 Soviet collapse.
Even independent opinion polls suggested Lukashenko, who has pushed through a referendum scrapping term limits and hinted he plans to stay in office indefinitely, would win a majority and avoid a runoff.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.