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BELARUS’ ELECTORAL NIGHTMARE. Belarus held presidential elections on Dec. 19, 2010
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Belarus held presidential elections on Dec. 19, 2010 After a campaign marked by uncharacteristic openness toward independent candidates, the election itself was marred by fraud. Citizens took to the streets in protest but were met with violence and saw opposition candidates arrested and imprisoned. GMF Senior Transatlantic Fellow Pavol Demes served as an independent election observer and submitted this photo slideshow of the events.
Prior to the elections, the well-known Belorussian analyst Valery Karbalevich published a 700-page-plus political portrait of President Aleksandr Lukashenko.
The Presidential Palace is located in Minsk, the capital of Belarus.
This polling-station billboard shows the 10 presidential candidates – the incumbent Lukashenko and nine opposition candidates.
This Town Hall meeting for opposition candidate Andrei Sannikau took place in Minsk just two days before the elections. The nine opposition candidates were allowed a month to travel across the country of 10 million and meet with voters, a very unusual thing in the 16 years of Lukashenko’s rule.
Presidential candidate Vital Rymasheuski, shown here two days before elections, was then full of optimism. He is now in a KGB prison.
Presidential candidate Yaroslau Ramanchuk, shown two days before elections, was released from prison after public dissociation with the protest.
During a Joint press conference of the two opposition frontrunners -- Uladzimir Niakliayeu (standing) and Andrei Sannikau – held the day before the elections, the candidates spoke about Lukashenko’s dictatorial regime and called people to the Minsk’s October Square at 8 p.m., right after the polls closed.
Minsk’s October Square is situated not far from the Presidential palace.
This is October Square a few hours later (around 9 p.m.). Very few believed that so many people would come. The opposition candidates addressed the protesters.
A huge crowd, led by the opposition candidates, started to move along Independence Avenue toward Independence Square.
The red church at Independence Square is just next to the government buildings complex.
This statue of Vladimir Lenin sits in front of the Belarus government buildings.
The pedestal of Lenin’s statue served as a podium for the presidential candidates to address tens of thousands protesters .
When the presidential candidates moved toward the government buildings, dozens of people started to break the glass on the entrance. This was a staged provocation by security forces, who used it as an impulse for a huge and brutal crackdown.
Presidential candidate Uladzimier Niakliayeu, a poet, was brutally beaten before the protest meeting occurred. He is in serious condition in a KGB prison.
Presidential candidate Andrei Sannikau was brutally beaten and today is in a KGB prison.
Iryna Khalip, Sannikau’s wife and a well-known journalist, was also beaten and is now in a KGB prison.
Anatol Liabedzka, chair of the opposition United Civil Party, was beaten and is now in a KGB prison.
Natallia Radzina, a journalist and editor of the charter97.org website, was beaten and is also in prison.
Dzmitry Bandarenka, the coordinator of the “European Belarus” campaign, is now in a KGB prison.
Aliaksandr Atroshchankau, the press secretary for Andrei Sannikau’s election headquarters, is now in a KGB prison.
Uladzimir Kobets, the head of Andrei Sannikau’s election headquarters,is now in a KGB prison.
The OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) held a press conference the day after the elections to comment on the crackdown on protestors and express disappointment about the fraudulent elections.
Ambassador Geert Ahrens (left) was the head of the long-term OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission, and British MP Tony Lloyd was the head of the short-term OSCE observer mission to the presidential election in Belarus.
Volha Niakliayeva, the wife of presidential candidate Uladzimir Niakliayev, makes an emotional appeal at the OSCE/ODIHR press conference on behalf of her beaten and imprisoned husband.
More than 600 people were arrested after the protests. This KGB building holds about 25 of the most prominent protestors, including five presidential candidates and their team members, who await an unknown fate.
This mural by the Belorussian artist Ales Rodin is on a wall along Oranienburger Strasse in Berlin. Continued outpouring of support from the international community will be crucial to pressuring Lukashenko to release the political prisoners.
