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Thousands of Belarussians denounce election
 Minsk - Thousands of protesters thronged the main square of the Belarusian capital on Sunday in defiance of a government ban, refusing to recognize a presidential vote that appeared all but certain to give the iron-fisted incumbent a third term. The protesters chanted "Long Live Belarus!" and the name of the main opposition candidate, Alexander Milinkevich. Some waved a national flag that Lukashenko banned in favor of a Soviet-style replacement, while others waved European Union flags."We demand new, honest elections," Milinkevich told the crowd. "This was a complete farce." Lukashenko won 88.5 percent of the vote compared to 3.8 percent for Milenkevich, central election commission secretary Nikolai Lozovik said, with 22.3 percent of ballots counted. The results virtually guaranteed a third term for the authoritarian leader who has ruled the republic since 1994. Milinkevich and another opposition candidate, Alexander Kozulin, called on the crowd, which began thinning under a heavy snow, to return to the square Monday evening signaling they would try to hold a sustained protest of the sort that brought down long-lived regimes in former Soviet republics including Ukraine and Georgia. Much more at the link. Good luck, Belarus. Posted by: Seafarious 2006-03-20 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=145966 |