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Crisis in Belarus

Five-hour opposition rally in Minsk brings together tens of thousands of people

Police did not interfere during the entire day

© Yuliya Sharufulina/TASS

MINSK, August 16. /TASS/. Tens of thousands of people gathered for another peaceful rally in central Minsk on Sunday to protest against the official results on the August 9 presidential elections.

People began to gather around the Hero City Minsk monument by 14:00 local time. In a couple of hours, the square, the park near it and adjacent streets were full of people. People were coming in families, many with their children.

The traffic along the neighboring streets was not blocked, with people crossing streets only on the green. Cars were driving by, honking their horns. Some stopped to hand out bottled water. The weather in Minsk was hot on Sunday, with air temperatures being around 30 degrees Celsius.

Maria Kolesnikova, an ally of presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, took part in the rally.

"That’s great! The Belarusian people are incredible! They demonstrate that they have the right to call themselves Europeans," she told TASS. When asked what the opposition planned to do bearing in mind that President Alexander Lukashenko was not going to step down, she said, "He is no opponent to us any longer."

The protesters chanted slogans demanding Lukashenko resign and all those detained during the protests be released.

Later, the protesters moved to the Independence Square, which had been the venue of a rally in support of incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko earlier in the day. People were chanting "Go Away!"

Police did not interfere during the entire day. By 19:00 local time, the protesters began to leave the square.

On August 9, Belarus held its sixth presidential election since declaring independence in 1991. According to the final results of Sunday’s voting, the incumbent president, Alexander Lukashenko, won 80.1% of the vote. His closest rival, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, scored 10.12% of votes. However, she did not recognize the results of the voting.

Mass protests and clashes with police took place in Minsk and other Belarusian cities on Sunday night into Monday morning after exit poll results were made public. Rallies continued for several days. As a result, several thousands of people were detained, dozens of law enforcers and demonstrators were injured. One man was killed in central Minsk.

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