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Belarus opposition candidate rejects election result after night of protests

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  • Belarus opposition candidate rejects election result after night of protests

    The obscenity of authoritarian governments that rig elections and dare to call them democratic!


    Belarus’s opposition has issued a message of defiance, rejecting the results of a presidential election marred by vote-rigging as the country braced for a second night of protests against President Alexander Lukashenko.

    “I will believe my own eyes – the majority was for us,” Svetlana Tikhanovskaya told reporters in the capital, Minsk, on Monday, after widespread reports of vote-tampering in Sunday’s election.

    Tikhanovskaya said she considered herself the winner, not Lukashenko, and described the election as massively rigged. “The authorities should think about how to peacefully hand over power to us,” she said. “I consider myself the winner of this election.”

    Her aides said the opposition wanted a vote recount at polling stations where there were reports of vote tampering. They also said the opposition wanted to hold talks with authorities about how to bring about a peaceful change of power.

    Lukashenko, who is facing the deepest crisis of his 26 years in power, has threatened to crush any illegal rallies. He claimed that the protests were being directed from abroad, singling out Poland, Britain, and the Czech Republic.

    Tikhanovskaya has stopped short of joining street protests and her team released a statement on Monday evening saying they feared her appearance could lead to “provocations”.

    But the harrowing scenes of violence on the streets of Minsk and dozens more Belarusian cities are expected to bring more people on to the streets on Monday evening, with rallies anticipated to begin at 7pm.

    [...]

    The country’s election commission reported late on Monday that Lukashenko had won 80.08% of the vote while Tikhanovskaya took just 10.09%, despite a popular wave of support for the opposition candidate, whose political rallies have drawn some of the country’s largest crowds since the days of the Soviet Union.

    Similar, preliminary results released on Sunday prompted unprecedented protests in cities across the country, posing the greatest threat to Lukashenko – often referred to as Europe’s last dictator – since he came to power. Foreign observers have not declared a Belarusian election free and fair since 1995.


    https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...aya-lukashenko
    "It ain't necessarily so
    The things that you're liable
    To read in the Bible
    It ain't necessarily so
    ."

    Sportin' Life
    Porgy & Bess, DuBose Heyward, George & Ira Gershwin

  • #2
    Originally posted by Hypatia_Alexandria View Post
    Foreign observers have not declared a Belarusian election free and fair since 1995.
    In that case, is it really news that the election was rigged?

    It does seem like the number of disputed elections around the world is increasing, and ways of influencing election outcomes are getting more sophisticated.

    In the last couple of decades we've seen things like Bush v Gore and Russiagate in the US, fake corruption charges a few years ago in Brazil used to prevent a popular president running for another term, last year a biased US organisation falsely labeling a free and fair election in Bolivia as "rigged" as an excuse for a coup there etc.

    Looking at international measures of democracy quality, and also corruption levels, while it does seem like these things have gotten reasonably steadily better around the globe across the course of the last 100 years, they seem to have stagnated or gone backward over the last 20 years. It seems like increasingly in the modern world, Russia is exporting anti-democratic activity, and the US is exporting corruption.
    "I hate him passionately", he's "a demonic force" - Tucker Carlson, in private, on Donald Trump
    "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism" - George Orwell
    "[Capitalism] as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of evils. I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy" - Albert Einstein

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    • #3
      Originally posted by Hypatia_Alexandria View Post
      The country’s election commission reported late on Monday that Lukashenko had won 80.08% of the vote while Tikhanovskaya took just 10.09%, despite a popular wave of support for the opposition candidate, …
      Hardly surprising there were protests over a difference of that much. If they'd reported, say, 55-40 instead of 80-10 they might have got away with it.
      Jorge: Functional Complex Information is INFORMATION that is complex and functional.

      MM: First of all, the Bible is a fixed document.
      MM on covid-19: We're talking about an illness with a better than 99.9% rate of survival.

      seer: I believe that so called 'compassion' [for starving Palestinian kids] maybe a cover for anti Semitism, ...

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      • #4
        Originally posted by Starlight View Post
        In that case, is it really news that the election was rigged?

        It does seem like the number of disputed elections around the world is increasing, and ways of influencing election outcomes are getting more sophisticated.

        In the last couple of decades we've seen things like Bush v Gore and Russiagate in the US, fake corruption charges a few years ago in Brazil used to prevent a popular president running for another term, last year a biased US organisation falsely labeling a free and fair election in Bolivia as "rigged" as an excuse for a coup there etc.

        Looking at international measures of democracy quality, and also corruption levels, while it does seem like these things have gotten reasonably steadily better around the globe across the course of the last 100 years, they seem to have stagnated or gone backward over the last 20 years. It seems like increasingly in the modern world, Russia is exporting anti-democratic activity, and the US is exporting corruption.
        Your points notwithstanding this gradual chipping away at democracy should be of concern to anyone who values the rights and freedoms it provides.

        The recent situation in Hungary where an ally of Orbán has bought a controlling share in the last independent news outlet, is further evidence of this insidious development. The chief editor warned of growing political interference in the website’s work and was promptly sacked,, leading to journalists resigning en masse.

        We now have the situation whereby an EU member state has a muzzled press, that is unlikely to criticise the government, or investigate any suspected wrongdoings and corruption.

        https://www.irishtimes.com/news/worl...edom-1.4312856
        "It ain't necessarily so
        The things that you're liable
        To read in the Bible
        It ain't necessarily so
        ."

        Sportin' Life
        Porgy & Bess, DuBose Heyward, George & Ira Gershwin

        Comment


        • #5
          It does seem strange to me that the EU appears so tolerant of Hungary's rapid slide into dictatorship.

          I don't follow internal EU politics so it makes me wonder what the process is that's causing this apparent lack of reaction.
          "I hate him passionately", he's "a demonic force" - Tucker Carlson, in private, on Donald Trump
          "Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism" - George Orwell
          "[Capitalism] as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of evils. I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy" - Albert Einstein

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Starlight View Post
            It does seem strange to me that the EU appears so tolerant of Hungary's rapid slide into dictatorship.

            I don't follow internal EU politics so it makes me wonder what the process is that's causing this apparent lack of reaction.
            The EU walks a careful line. It wants to keep Europe united and so has to use other means to control the slide back into dictatorships in some countries. Hungary has been a mess for over a century. There is anger witin sections of the public among some of the founder member states that the newer members are rather inclined to take EU financial assistance and do little to counter domestic problems. However, even founder states have their problems Germany has never really addressed the former GDR and much of the support for the AfD is found on that side of the country, along with Neo-Nazism. Likewise in France the Rassemblement national [aka National Rally formerly National Front] has been quiet since late June but its politics have not disappeared.

            While the UK - judged from a distance looks like a complete basket case - and is being run by a better educated version of Trump.
            "It ain't necessarily so
            The things that you're liable
            To read in the Bible
            It ain't necessarily so
            ."

            Sportin' Life
            Porgy & Bess, DuBose Heyward, George & Ira Gershwin

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Hypatia_Alexandria View Post
              ... this gradual chipping away at democracy should be of concern to anyone who values the rights and freedoms it provides.
              It's happening everywhere. I usually don't see liberal (types) complain about it unless it runs afoul of their specific ideals.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Starlight View Post
                In the last couple of decades we've seen things like Bush v Gore and Russiagate in the US...
                You're amusing.

                Comment

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