Lukashenko 'official winner' of Belarus election
Final results from last weekend’s presidential election in Belarus confirm a landslide victory for incumbent Alexander Lukashenko, a top electoral official in the former Soviet republic said today.
Lukashenko won a new five-year term with 83 per cent of the vote, while the main opposition candidate, Alexander Milinkevich, received 6.1 per cent, said Central Election Commission secretary Nikolai Lozovik.
The numbers differed only slightly from preliminary results issued a day after Sunday’s vote, which the opposition, Western governments and Europe’s leading election monitoring body say was undemocratic.
The government has dismissed the criticism.
The election has led to round-the-clock protests in a central Minsk square by Lukashenko opponents who claim the vote was a farce and are calling for new balloting in which he would be barred from participating. Lukashenko has been in power since 1994.
