Protest In Belarus After Presidential Election

Table of Contents

Dramatic protests erupted across Belarus overnight
As the country’s authoritarian president declared a sweeping victory over a popular opposition candidate in elections
Widely seen as riddled with irregularities.

About Alexander Lukashenko

Alexander Lukashenko has resorted to violent crackdowns on several occasions to maintain his grasp on power in the former Soviet nation for the last 26 years.

Lukashenko has served five terms as president of Belarus since 1994,
But observers have questioned the legitimacy of these elections and whether they could be considered free and fair.
Tried to project himself as a “man of the people”.
His economic policies have added to the country’s problems and unemployment has been on the rise for the past decade.
The Belarusian ruble has also experienced devaluation several times.

According to official exit polling released by the country’s Central Election Commission after polls closed,
Lukashenko was on his way to receiving more than 80% of votes cast from a turnout of more than 80 percent.
He is often referred to as “Europe’s last dictator,”
But Sunday’s results strained credulity even by those standards.
Since May, Belarus has witnessed large-scale protests against his presidency with demands for free and fair elections and the release of political prisoners.
Crying foul, streams of people began taking to the streets across Belarus to support surprise opposition star Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya.

Svetlana, 38, decided to take on Lukashenko in the upcoming presidential elections,
After her husband Sergei Tikhanovsky, a popular YouTuber, was arrested and prevented from registering as a presidential candidate in May,
On grounds that he was instigating protests against the president.
Observers believe these presidential candidates attracted large crowds during their campaign rallies over the past few months in a large part
Due to the public’s dissatisfaction at Lukashenko’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
She has emerged in recent weeks as an unprecedented threat to Lukashenko’s authority,
Inspiring the largest wave of protests against the regime in the past decade.
For her part the opposition leader Svetlana rejected the results and
Asserted that she was the winner of Sunday’s contest.

Internet access in Belarus was heavily curtailed as polls closed, making it difficult to ascertain exactly what was going on.
Many foreign journalists were denied accreditation to enter the country to cover the election, further complicating the picture.

The European Union condemned the police crackdown and called for an immediate release of all those detained.
“We’re deeply concerned by the Belarus presidential election,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said at a briefing Monday, citing intimidation of opposition candidates and the detention of protesters and journalists.