BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

22/03/2006

Protests over Belarus election enter fourth day amid mixed world reactions

Protests over the re-election of President Aleksandr Lukashenko for a third term entered their fourth day Wednesday in the Belarussian capital.

Long after midnight Wednesday at least 700 people remained on the October Square. The group was much bigger than that of the night before, when some 250 people stayed overnight in the square.

Opposition demonstrators camped in bitter cold in the square in the centre of the capital to back a call for a re-run of the vote they charge was rigged. About 15 tents have been pitched since late Monday.

Supported by opponents as Freedom Day in Belarus, opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich on Tuesday urged demonstrators to keep up daily protests and called for a massive rally on Saturday.

Also on Tuesday brief scuffles erupted between uniformed police and protestors in the square.

The protest on Tuesday night had about the same scale as that on Monday, which later again shrank to a smaller group of people surrounding the tents.

Belarus' Central Election Commission announced early Monday that Lukashenko won re-election in Sunday's presidential vote with 82.6 percent of the vote.

But his main rival Milinkevich, who electoral officials said received 6 percent, called the incumbent's tally "monstrously inflated" and urged a new vote in which Lukashenko should not be allowed to run.

His push for a new vote is supported by the United States and the European Union.

Meanwhile, the Russia Foreign Ministry said on Monday the presidential re-election in Belarus was fair and legitimate.

Source: Xinhua

Source:

http://english.people.com.cn/200603/22/eng20060322_252652.html