Belarus police crack down on mass protests against strongman president after election

Andrei Makhovsky
,
Reuters•August 9, 2020

By Andrei Makhovsky

MINSK (Reuters) - Belarus police fired water cannons, tear gas and stun grenades in a crackdown on protests that erupted on Sunday as President Alexander Lukashenko was set to claim another election win in the face of the biggest challenge in years to his grip on power.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Minsk while protesters clapped, shouted "victory", waved flags and honked car horns in solidarity with the opposition. Some built barricades with garbage cans, RIA news agency reported.

Helmeted police blocked off streets and at least 10 people were detained in one spot in Minsk, a Reuters witness said, while local media reported detentions and clashes between police and protesters in other cities.

A police prisoner transport van hit a crowd of people in the capital, witnesses said, but there were no immediate details of casualties. The authorities said they had no reports of any injuries from the protests.

A former Soviet collective farm manager, the authoritarian Lukashenko has ruled the country since 1994 but has battled a wave of anger over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy and his human rights record.

State-approved exit polls showed him winning 79.7% of the vote while his main opponent Svetlana Tikhanouskaya, a former English teacher who emerged from obscurity a few weeks ago to lead rallies against him, received 6.8%.

Tikhanouskaya entered the race after her husband, an anti-government blogger who intended to run, was jailed.

Foreign observers have not judged an election to be free and fair in Belarus since 1995.

"I hope that law enforcement officials will come to their senses and switch to the people's side, then the night in Minsk will end without blood," said Veronika Tsepkalo, the wife of a barred candidate who threw her support behind Tikhanouskaya.

A harsh response to new protests 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.

Tikhanouskaya's rallies have drawn some of the biggest crowds since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, and on Sunday she arrived at a polling station with hundreds of supporters chanting her name.