Europe

Lukashenko faces challenge in Belarus presidential vote, opposition figures detained

Issued on: 09/08/2020 – 09:55

Belarus began voting in an election on Sunday pitting President Alexander Lukashenko against a former teacher who emerged from obscurity to lead the biggest challenge in years against the man once dubbed "Europe's last dictator" by Washington.

Advertising

Read more

The 65-year-old Lukashenko is almost certain to win a sixth consecutive term but could face a new wave of protests amid anger over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy and his human rights record.

An ongoing crackdown on the opposition could hurt Lukashenko's attempts to mend fences with the West amid fraying ties with traditional ally Russia, which has tried to press Belarus into closer economic and political union.

A former Soviet collective farm manager, Lukashenko has ruled since 1994.

International election observers 'haven't even been invited' for Belarus vote

He faces a surprise rival in Svetlana Tikhanouskaya, a former English teacher who entered the race after her husband, an anti-government blogger who intended to run, was jailed.

Her rallies have drawn some of the biggest crowds since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Human rights groups say more than 1,300 people have been detained in a widening crackdown.

Foreign observers have not judged an election to be free and fair in Belarus for a quarter of a century. Despite an election commission ban on the opposition holding an alternative vote count, Tikhanouskaya urged her supporters to monitor polling stations.

"We are in the majority and we don't need blood on the city streets," she said on Saturday. "Let's defend our right to choose together."

Read More – Source
[contf]
[contfnew]

france24

[contfnewc]
[contfnewc]

Related Articles

Europe

Spain holidays: Britons turn their back on Benidorm – ‘keep our money in our country’

express– BENIDORM business owners have shared their struggles after a lack of...

Europe

Why Portugal fears a backlash if Trump is re-elected US president

If the diplomatic spat between Portugal and the United States is anything...

Europe

Vienna attacker acted alone and had tried to join so-called Islamic State, say authorities

The man who killed four people in a shooting rampage in Vienna...

Europe

Coronavirus: Italy has highest daily death toll in six months, Hungary, Netherlands set new measures

Italy recorded its highest daily COVID-19 death toll in nearly six months...