Elections, results and protests in Belarus

[Fonzarelli]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe....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.

[Czas na Zywiec]

Of corse Lukaszenko is going to rig the votes to go his way. Tho he really doesn't even need to because he's brainwashed Belarusians so much they don't even want to speak their own language. Less than 10% of the population actually knows it. No way he's going to let the west take control of Belarus. He likes being up Putin's ass and he won't stop until he finishes his goal of exterminating Belarusian culture from the face of the planet. Long live Soviet Belarus!

[Fonzarelli]

Well, who knows... I'm still hoping a revolution will take place, like it did in Georgia and Ukraine.

[Czas na Zywiec]

^^ I'm hoping for one too, it would be great, but the chances of that happening aren't very good, at least right now. I have a friend from Kyiv and he's part Belarusian, and says that the differences between the two countries are getting bigger every day. While Ukraine is derussifying itself and having Ukrainian replace Russian almost everywhere, Belarusians don't really care to revive their language. The other Soviet republics are trying to shed their Russification as well but Belarus seems to be too controlled by that maniac. Sad, but what can you do? I can only hope that minority or pro-Belarusians can get bigger and more people can open their eyes to the outside world and start something to overthrow this idiot. Poland and Lithuania are already establishing illegal radio to be broadcasted into the western areas of Belarus so that they can be told news and events that haven't been biased by corrupt Lukaszenko and his cronies. They need to turn their backs on Russia and open up to the democratic west like the Ukrainians and Baltics did if they're going to get anywhere.

[Czas na Zywiec]

And I also hate the Soviet Flag and coat of arms (minus the hammer and sickle) that they reinstated when Lukaszenko took office.



Can't wait for the day when they can bring back the original, pre-Soviet flag and symbol.

[Bobby F.]

Originally Posted by Fonzarelli

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe....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.

Did you forget? We're the USA. We don't give a ****. It's kind of like when election happen in the netherlands...No one cares.

[Czas na Zywiec]

I care, Bobby. Yea, I'm in the states, but Belarus has always been an interest of mine. It's sad that countries around it are changing rapidly from day to day while it remains pretty much a time capsule of the Soviet Union. I remember the struggle Poland and the Baltics went through to break free from Soviet iron fist, so I can definitely relate to Belarusians and their situation right now.

[T_ID]

Originally Posted by Bobby F.

Did you forget? We're the USA. We don't give a ****. It's kind of like when election happen in the netherlands...No one cares.

In turn, nobody cares about you, the world goes on.


It's pretty worrying in Belarus tho, news reports speak of 'hundred of demonstrators' being arrested per day, although massive police intervention hasn't occured yet.

[Czas na Zywiec]

Originally Posted by T_ID

In turn, nobody cares about you, the world goes on.


It's pretty worrying in Belarus tho, news reports speak of 'hundred of demonstrators' being arrested per day, although massive police intervention hasn't occured yet.

Because they're all controlled by that puppet. It's also interesting how members from the opposition keep disappearing. Hmmm....

Also, border guards are denying entrance to any reporters who have Polish and Lithuanian sounding last names. Lukaszenko is going to make damn sure that he stays in power and no outside influences get into the country so people start questioning him. REALLY sad.

[T_ID]

Well, news reports today show a dwindling number of protestors and opposition leaders quarreling whether or not to go on. I don't think we'll be seeing a revolution unless something unexpected happens.