The BBC reports:
Security forces in Belarus have arrested hundreds of people who protested against the result of Sunday’s presidential election.
At least seven presidential candidates were among those detained. Some of them were reportedly also beaten by police.
The OSCE called the poll “flawed” while the US and EU condemned the crackdown.
But President Alexander Lukashenko, who was re-elected for a fourth term with almost 80% of the vote, accused opposition supporters of “banditry”.
…..
Earlier, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) called the election “flawed”, saying it fell well short of democratic standards.“The presidential election indicated that Belarus still has a considerable way to go in meeting its OSCE commitments, although some specific improvements were made,” a statement said.
It said that while the overall voting process was assessed as good, the vote count was “bad and very bad in almost half of all observed polling stations”.
“The count was largely conducted in a non-transparent manner, generally in silence, which undermined its credibility,” it added.
The OSCE said its observers did not have a real opportunity to monitor counting in 32% of the observed polling stations and were restricted in 66%. The monitors also noted indications of ballot-stuffing in 14 cases.
The head of the OSCE observer team, Geert-Hinrich Ahrens, criticised “the flawed vote count and the authorities’ heavy-handed response to yesterday’s demonstrations”.
*“We see here a model social state like the one we are beginning to create.”
—Hugo Chavez, on a 2006 visit to Belarus
