Lukashenko: I would like to ask them: what is wrong with the Belarusians?

Photo: EPA

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko at a rally in his support in Minsk on August 16 stated that, if the citizens of the country “will ruin the first President”, it would be “the beginning of the end”. Speech broadcasted by “radio Svaboda”.

“I would like to ask them: what is wrong with the Belarusians? You wanted for centuries to be called humans. And remember: ruin Lukashenko, the ruin of the first President – this will be the beginning of your end. You will always be in Ukraine, as in other countries, to kneel and pray at someone unknown!” he said.

From the 4th to the 8th of August took place in Belarus early voting for presidential elections and the August 9th primary. For President ran five candidates. On 14 August, the CEC announced the final results of the presidential election. According to official figures, won by Lukashenko, who voted for 80.1% of the voters. Second place with 10.1% of votes were opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovski. The other candidates received less than 2%. At the same time, alternative exit polls showed the opposite pattern – a landslide victory Tikhanovski.

Elections were held in Belarus without independent international observers. After the polls closed on 9 August in several cities the protests began, which lasts to the present day. The stock joined the labor collectives of the largest Belarusian enterprises. Protesters accuse the authorities of rigging the election. To disperse the protesters, security forces used non-lethal weapons, in particular in Minsk they used stun grenades, rubber bullets and water cannons.

During the protests, was detained about 7 thousand demonstrators (according to official data, more than 2 thousand of them have already been released), hundreds were injured and wounded.

16 August in Minsk was held a rally in support of Lukashenko. It was made by the President himself. He accused NATO deployment of troops at the borders of Belarus, and also claimed that election fraud was not, and rejected the possibility of a new vote in the country.

Lukashenko said that the meeting involved more than 50 thousand people. Edition TUT.BY reported that the authorities forcibly collected their supporters for action.

After a Pro-government rally began the opposition action. According to estimates TUT.BY she came about 200 thousand people.