Protests erupt in Belarus as opposition fears presidential election was rigged

(Image credit: Sergei Gapon/AFP via Getty Images)

published 10 August 2020

In Belarus, protesters took to the streets of Minsk on Sunday night after a government exit poll predicted the authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko will win a sixth term, with 80 percent of the vote.

Witnesses said riot police fired stun grenades, rubber bullets, and water cannons at the demonstrators in order to break up the crowd, BBC News reports. Lukashenko, 65, has been in power since 1994, and is often referred to as "Europe's last dictator." Leading up to the election, the government cracked down on journalists and activists, and officials blocked two challengers from appearing on the ballot and arrested another.

Opposition leaders said they expected the vote to be rigged, and observers were not allowed to monitor the election. The exit poll gives Lukashenko's primary challenger, former teacher Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, seven percent of the vote, but she said during a press conference that she believes "my eyes, and I see that the majority is with us."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.