MINSK, August 14. /TASS/. Belarusian Central Election Commission (CEC) head Lidiya Yermoshina said on Friday that all complaints filed by candidates in the country’s recent presidential election have been rejected.
"All of them have been rejected. We have no choice. People think that we have the authority to review [the results] and declare Tikhanovskaya the winner, but this is impossible. If violations, which they claim had taken place, are confirmed, the elections can be declared invalid. In this case, another election campaign with new candidates should take place within three months," she said in an interview with KP Belarus.
Belarus held a presidential election on August 9. According to the final results provided by the Belarusian Central Election Commission on August 14, incumbent President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko got 80.1% of the vote. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who was considered his main opponent, came in second with 10.12% and refused to recognize the results of the vote.
After exit poll results were announced in the evening of August 9, protests erupted in downtown Minsk and other regions of the country, leading to clashes between protesters and the law enforcement. The protests continued over the following days. As a result, several thousand people were detained, dozens of police officers and protesters were injured.