Belarus Election - The Tyrrany Continues

[Ryokan]

Several thousand Belarussian opposition supporters have gathered in a main square in Minsk as voting in the country's presidential election ended.

They claim that President Alexander Lukashenko has rigged the vote to ensure a third term in office.

Mr Lukashenko has warned he will crush any attempt to stage a popular revolt.

More than two hours before the official end of voting, exit polls on state controlled TV suggested Mr Lukashenko had won 82% of the vote.

The same poll said that the main opposition candidate, Alexander Milinkevich, had won just 5%.

According to election officials the turnout has been more than 80%.

The president has warned he will not tolerate any attempt at a "coup" and has vowed to "break the neck" of anyone who tries to seize power.

Large-scale street protests led to the fall of leaders in other ex-Soviet republics such as Ukraine and Georgia.

Both the European Union and the United States have expressed concern at the Belarussian government's tough stance on political protest.

Police have said that protesters "trying to destabilise the situation" will be treated as terrorists and could face the death penalty.

A spokesman for the Helsinki Committee, a human rights organisation, told the BBC the Belarussian government's threats to opposition groups could trigger violence.

"We've had similar statements during previous elections... This one is stronger and maybe it's a sign that we should expect violence during Sunday evening," Dzmitry Markusheuski said.

Officials in the ex-Soviet republic have accused foreign countries of backing opposition candidates in the election and a number of foreign monitors and journalists have been denied entry to watch the vote.

Source

Eyewitness: Expelled from Belarus

Eight members of a Scandinavian team of unofficial election observers have been ordered to leave the country, days before the presidential elections.

The BBC News website spoke to one of the those arrested - Michael Johnson, 23, the Belarus co-ordinator for the Social Democratic Youth of Denmark (DSU).

Source

 

[Mycroft]

Wow. I don't think I'd ever heard of Belarus before this.

 

[Ryokan]

Wow. I don't think I'd ever heard of Belarus before this.

I'm guessing the US media isn't covering this, then?

Belarus is also known as the last European dictatorship.

 

[Mike B.]

I'm guessing the US media isn't covering this, then?

Belarus is also known as the last European dictatorship.

I think he is pulling your leg.

Here is a bit in CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/03/19/belarus.poll.results.ap/index.html

 

[Ryokan]

I think he is pulling your leg.

Here is a bit in CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/03/19/belarus.poll.results.ap/index.html

Ah.

 

[Mycroft]

I'm guessing the US media isn't covering this, then?

Belarus is also known as the last European dictatorship.

I haven't been watching much TV lately, but I don't think so, no.

 

[The Central Scrutinizer]

I blame Bush.


Someone had to say it!

 

[Art Vandelay]

I'm guessing the US media isn't covering this, then?

Belarus is also known as the last European dictatorship.

What about the Vatican?

 

[Kerberos]

What about the Vatican?

The Vatican has no other citizens than it's employees, so we have a dictatorship that only "oppresses" people who volountarilly choose to work form them, which you can leave whenever you choose and where you propably have a fair degree of freedom of speech, thought, fair courst (I think they use the Italian ones mostly) and so forth. Not exactly the associations the word dictatorship normally carries. Fact is that the Vatican isn't really a proper state at all.

 

[a_unique_person]

Source



Source

From what I have heard, he is a lot like the president of Russia, acting illegally, but still quite popular because a lot of people just want someone who can keep things stable, and is able to push the right 'populist' buttons.

 

[Kerberos]

From what I have heard, he is a lot like the president of Russia, acting illegally, but still quite popular because a lot of people just want someone who can keep things stable, and is able to push the right 'populist' buttons.

That's, I believe partially correct, but let's not forget Lukashenko also controls the media, imprisons political opponents and all that. He's a lot worse than Putin. Also while he might get a majority anyways, one might wonder why he objects to exit polls if he's not going to improve on the results. Incidentially I spoke to some of the expelled observers, and one og them told me that some of the Belerussians who worked with them believed that the booth were being monitered to register who they voted for. While this might not be true, the belief that it is could in itself influence voting.

 

[a_unique_person]

I have no doubt they could do a lot better, but the states new to democracy seem to take it slowly sometimes. Hopefully, this will turn out ok in the long run.