After a night of mayhem in central Minsk involving riot police and thousands of demonstrators, the central election commission declared in the early hours that Lukashenko, in power since 1994, had secured nearly 80 percent of the vote.
Opposition parties say supporters of the 56-year-old former Soviet state farm director had rigged his re-election at the vote counting stages, much as they had in 2006.
In a verdict that could have implications for Belarus’s future relations with the West and the European Union, international monitors sharply criticized the election vote count as “flawed” and police action as “heavy-handed.”
“This election failed to give Belarus the new start it needed,” Tony Lloyd, head of the short-term observer mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told a news conference.
A positive judgment by the OSCE had been seen as key to possible EU financial aid for the ex-Soviet republic’s economy.
EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton criticized the violence and called for the authorities to release those arrested, echoing similar comments from Poland.
Berlin also expressed its worries about the vote. “Many things show that it did not meet international standards for free and fair elections,” government spokesman Steffen Seibert told a news briefing.
However, a parallel observer mission from the Russian-led Commonwealth of Independent States gave the election a clean bill of health.
In Moscow, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the election was an “internal matter” for Belarus and he did not comment on the police crackdown.
In a Belarus Interior Ministry statement, police justified their action, saying protesters had tried to seize the main government building by storm. Lukashenko was also due to hold a news conference later in the day. On Sunday night up to 10,000 people marched through the snow-bound capital chanting “Out!,” “Long Live Belarus!” and other anti-Lukashenko slogans in one of the most significant challenges to his iron-fisted, 16-year rule.
Then riot police waded in, beating people with batons on Independence Square. Some protesters in the ex-Soviet republic threw stones and snowballs at police.
Several people were left sprawled on the ground, including an elderly woman who had been hit on the head. Others were bundled into police cars.
One opposition leader, Vladimir Neklyayev, was beaten by police who fired into the air to disperse a column of supporters trying to join the main rally. His wife said he was later taken by police from his hospital bed, where he had been recovering from head injuries.
Police were detaining Neklyayev, 56-year-old Andrei Sannikov and at least five other candidates against Lukashenko, the pro-rights Vyasna (Spring) website and opposition aides said.
“I don’t think the authorities should beat their own people. They must be really afraid,” said Olga, in her twenties, who witnessed the violence.
The state prosecutor’s office said some protest leaders could face up to 15 years in jail for stirring mass unrest.
The Interior Ministry statement, focusing on an attempt by some demonstrators to break down the door of a government building, said: “A peaceful meeting grew into an attempt to seize the building of the Council of Ministers by storm.”
Many demonstrators had been drunk and the police had later recovered wooden sticks, metal bars and empty bottles, it said.
Belarus’s tightly-controlled media went into overdrive, stressing injuries to police and suggesting that some of the opposition had planned to set off explosions.
Protesters, it said, had tried to launch a “pogrom.”
The EU is weighing how far to engage with the country of 10 million on its eastern flank, amid tension between Lukashenko and chief benefactor Russia.
Lukashenko crushed dissent in the early years of his rule, jailing opponents and muzzling the media. The administration of former US President George Bush called him Europe’s “last dictator.”
One opposition figure told protesters on October Square that Lukashenko had won only 30.7 percent of the vote against Neklyayev’s 18 percent, according to an unofficial opposition exit poll. He called for a second round of voting.
During Lukashenko rule Belarus’s command economy has been propped up by energy subsidies from Russia. The country serves as a buffer between Russia and NATO and a transit route for Russian gas heading to Europe.
But relations with Moscow have been on the rocks in recent years and the EU has been dangling the prospect of financial aid if Sunday’s vote was deemed fair.
