“I think tomorrow they will calm down and understand that everyone only lives once," he said on Sunday.

Opposition observers pointed to the record number of early votes -- an unprecedented 40% according to Belarus' central elections commission -- as a sign of widespread ballot stuffing. New Labour leader told his party they were becoming ‘a competent, credible opposition.’. She emerged to vote at a polling station on Sunday but went back into hiding afterward.

Dozens of people were reported arrested. Lukashenko has been in power since 1994.

After casting his ballot on Sunday, Lukashenko promised that "situation would not go out of hand."

Turnout was reported as 84.23 percent. Belarusian authorities denied the report. He said that Lukashenko's handling of the pandemic was "the last straw" for the voters. Anneliese Dodds tells POLITICO that people who follow the rules and isolate risk being ‘pushed into debt.’. Protests in Belarus broke out Sunday against the results of a presidential election that gave the country's authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, a landslide win.

This article has been updated to reflect the Belarusian spelling of the opposition candidate, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. Police and protesters clashed in Belarus' capital and the major city of Brest on Sunday after the presidential election in which the authoritarian leader who has ruled for a quarter-century sought a sixth term in office.

Cyprus again blocks effort to punish Minsk for election fraud and human rights abuses. You can find more information in our data protection declaration. According to the ministry, 3,000 protesters were detained on Sunday, two-thirds of them in Minsk.

In POLITICO interview, Clément Beaune says Brussels has been ‘bad at dealing with power’ — and wants to change that. Ahead of the vote, Lukashenko warned that dissent would not be tolerated and that he would not give up his "beloved" Belarus.

Lukashenko won 80.23 percent of the vote in Sunday's election, according to preliminary results from the country's Central Election Commission (CEC). Official preliminary results are expected on Monday. Foreign secretary says sanctions to be coordinated with US and Canada.

The King has left the building (in case he gets coronavirus). Photos from the scene showed bloodied protesters, and in one video a police truck appeared to drive over a demonstrator. Tikhanovskaya, whom the opposition has unified behind, called on police to stop using violence against protesters. Florian Eder’s must-read briefing on what's driving the day in Brussels.

On Sunday, internet access in Belarus was partly shut down for most of the day, and by evening many social media platforms and messaging apps, including WhatsApp and Viber, were not working. However, she said the low support reflected for Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya in the poll had not been expected. Polling came to an end on Sunday as Belarusians cast their vote in the country's presidential elections, with President Alexander Lukashenko pitted against unlikely candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya.

Decision to turn the house into a police station rankles locals. However, Tsikhanouskaya rejected the numbers. mvb,dj/dr (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters, Interfax), © 2020 Deutsche Welle | Sunday's vote was preceded by weeks of opposition rallies that have been the largest political protests in Belarus since the fall of the Soviet Union, and were seen as an unprecedented challenge to Lukashenko who has already been in power for 26 years and is often nicknamed "Europe's Last Dictator".