5
Saturday
July 2025
9:44 PM IST
News Headlines
Home   | Main News   | Kerala  | National   | International  | Business   | Sports   | Entertainment   | Columns   | Offbeat   | About Deepika 
International News
Belarus' leader wins sixth term with over 80% of votes
 
Minsk: Election officials in Belarus say the country's longtime authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko has won his sixth consecutive presidential term, taking over 80 per cent of the votes, according to preliminary results of Sunday's election that resulted in mass protests all over Belarus and a violent crackdown on demonstrators.

The country's central election commission announced on Monday that all the ballots have been counted and Lukashenko took 80.23 per cent of the votes, while his main opposition challenger Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya had only 9.9 per cent.

The announcement may exacerbate tensions with opposition supporters who believe the results of the vote were rigged.

Thousands of people took to the streets in a number of Belarusian cities and towns on Sunday night, protesting the early count suggesting Lukashenko's landslide victory.

Tsikhanouskaya, a former English teacher and political novice, rejected the official figures, saying I will believe my own eyes the majority was for us.

Her supporters quickly took to the streets of the capital to protest what they saw as official manipulation of the vote. They faced rows of riot police in black uniforms who moved quickly to disperse the demonstrators, firing flash-bang grenades and beating them with truncheons.

The brutal crackdown followed a tense campaign that saw massive rallies against Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet nation with an iron fist for 26 years. Lukashenko has not yet commented on the election results or the protests.

Several other cities across the country saw similar crackdowns on protesters. According to the Viasna human rights group, over 100 protesters were detained, with the number likely to be much higher.

Interior Ministry spokeswoman Olga Chemodanova said that police efforts to restore order were continuing overnight, but wouldn't say how many people were detained. On Monday morning, Belarus' Investigative Committee opened a criminal probe into mass riots and violence toward police officers.

What has happened is awful, Tsikhanouskaya told reporters Sunday.

An AP journalist was beaten by police and treated at a hospital.

At Minsk's Hospital No. 10, an AP reporter saw a dozen ambulances delivering protesters with fragmentation wounds and cuts from stun grenades and other injuries.

It was a peaceful protest, we weren't using force, said 23-year-old protester Pavel Konoplyanik, who was accompanying his friend who had a plastic grenade fragment stuck in his neck. No one will believe in the official results of the vote, they have stolen our victory.

Konoplyanik, whose legs were also cut by fragments of police grenades, said he doesn't want to leave the country but fears that he might have no other choice.

Two prominent opposition challengers were denied places on the ballot, but Tsikhanouskaya, the wife of a jailed opposition blogger, managed to unite opposition groups and draw tens of thousands to her campaign rallies, tapping growing anger over a stagnant economy and fatigue with Lukashenko's autocratic rule.

Lukashenko was defiant as he voted earlier in the day, warning that the opposition will meet a tough response.

If you provoke, you will get the same answer, he said. Do you want to try to overthrow the government, break something, wound, offend, and expect me or someone to kneel in front of you and kiss them and the sand onto which you wandered? This will not happen. Three journalists from the independent Russian TV station Dozhd were detained after interviewing an opposition figure and were deported.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, whose assessments of elections are widely regarded as authoritative, was not invited to send observers.

Tsikhanouskaya had crisscrossed the country, tapping into public frustration with a worsening economy and Lukashenko's swaggering response to the pandemic.

Belarus, a country of 9.5 million people, has reported more than 68,500 coronavirus cases and 580 deaths but critics have accused authorities of manipulating the figures to downplay the death toll.

Lukashenko has dismissed the virus as psychosis and declined to apply measures to stop its spread, saying a lockdown would have doomed the already weak economy. He announced last month that he had been infected but had no symptoms and recovered quickly, allegedly thanks to playing sports.

Yet for some voters, Lukashenko's long, hard line rule was a plus.

He is an experienced politician, not a housewife who appeared out of nowhere and muddied the waters, retiree Igor Rozhov said Sunday. We need a strong hand that will not allow riots.


64 arrested in London on Charles III coronation day
Bangladesh police arrest six persons for selling fraud US visa stamps
Erdogan announces extension of grain deal by 120 days
Musk hints at new chief for Twitter
Modi interacts with Biden, Sunak and Macron on sidelines of G20 summit
PM Modi arrives in Bali for G20 Summit and bilateral meetings with key world leaders
Biden says US will 'vigorously' compete with China
Biden admin committed to work with India on its transition away from Russia: White House
Time to act faster on climate change: Rishi Sunak at COP27
Imran Khan-led march against Pak govt to resume Tuesday, discharged from hospital
Massive missile strike by Russia on major Ukraine cities
Stampede kills 8 at concert in DR Congo
UN chief welcomes forming of new govt in Iraq
Erdogan vows to adopt new Turkish constitution in 2023
Boris Johnson pulls out of UK PM race, Rishi Sunak closer to victory
Rishi Sunak would beat Liz Truss if UK PM poll held now, survey finds
Imran Khan stuns PML-N-led ruling coalition in bypolls; wins 6 National Assembly seats
PM Shehbaz dubs Imran as greatest 'fraudster ever'
Imran demands end to 'reign of robbers' in Sindh
Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to 3 yrs in prison
ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
'Ponniyin Selvan II' breaches Rs 300 crore mark at global box office
 Chennai: Director Mani Ratnam's magnum opus "Ponniyin Selvan II" has raised over Rs 300 crore at the  
Selena Gomez sets record straight on her relationship status amid dating rumours
Ranveer Singh bags Filmfare Best Actor for '83'
RRR can hit theatres on Holi
KERALA NEWS
Top police official held in gang rape case
 Kozhikode: Police on Sunday arrested a Circle Inspector (station house officer) attached in Beypore
Rain likely to occur many places in Kerala
Two killed as car plunged into well
Kerala CM greet Oommen Chandy on his 79th birthday
NATIONAL NEWS
Quo Vadis, Manipur?
 Imphal - Hardly any state in India has undergone in the last decade the chaos, lawlessness and suffe
27-year-old Hyderabad woman among victims of Texas mall shooting
One held in Swati Maliwal case: Delhi Police
PM to deliver opening address at 'No Money for Terror' event
Untitled Page
Rashtra Deepika LTD
Copyright @ 2021 , Rashtra Deepika Ltd.