MINSK, October 18. /TASS/. More than 100 people have been detained during Sunday’s protests in Belarus, the Vesna human rights center reported on its website.
According to the center, the list of those detained by 20:00 Moscow time included 110 names. Most of them were detained in the capital city Minsk.
A Minsk police spokesman confirmed that a number of protesters had been detained but diod not say how many.
Another opposition march of protest was held in Minsk on Sunday. Several thousands of protesters marched along the Partizansky Avenue off the center to draw attention of workers of the city’s big industrial enterprises located in the area. Such marches were held in a number of other Belarusian cities.
Nationwide demonstrations have engulfed Belarus following the August 9 presidential election. According to the Central Election Commission’s official results, incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko won by a landslide, garnering 80.10% of the vote. His closest rival in the race, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, came in second, with 10.12% of the ballot. However, she refused to recognize the election’s outcome, and left Belarus for Lithuania. After the results of the exit polls were announced late on August 9, mass protests erupted in downtown Minsk and other Belarusian cities. During the early post-election period, the rallies snowballed into fierce clashes between the protesters and police. The current unrest is being cheered on by the opposition’s Coordination Council, which has been beating the drum for more protests. In response, the Belarusian authorities have castigated the ongoing turmoil and demanded that these unauthorized demonstrations be stopped.