Belarus: Election monitors yesterday reported widespread violations in Sunday's election victory of Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko, as opposition supporters gathered for a second night of protest in the capital, Minsk.
In one of the most critical reports ever issued into a presidential election, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said the 82 per cent landslide for the president came after intimidation, censorship and abuse of power.
"I don't think that we could be any more forceful in asserting that the election did not meet international standards," said special co-ordinator Alcee Hastings, head of the mission.
Mr Lukashenko, appearing before supporters at a victory rally in Minsk, made no mention of the report, and declared the opposition protests on Sunday defeated. "The revolution someone talked about failed."
He thanked voters for "resisting colossal pressure from outside", and said they "showed who was boss".
The OSCE accused Mr Lukashenko's government of "a pattern of intimidation" prior to the election, including arrests and beatings, which added up to "the arbitrary abuse of state power, obviously designed to protect the incumbent president".
A list of criticisms blamed the authorities for intimidating students and workers into voting for Mr Lukashenko and forcing the opposition candidates to campaign with virtually no independent press, air time or rallies.
The OSCE said it was disturbed by claims by the security service, the KGB, which "associated the opposition and civil society groups with terrorism".
It declared the vote count "highly problematic", and said it was impossible to know whether the count was fair, with some counters using pencil, not pen, to register votes.
The head of the long-term component of the OSCE mission, ambassador Geert-Hinrich Ahrens, hit out at accusations by a group of Russian monitors who declared his group mercenaries. "I assume this declaration is an insult. I have never been accused of corruption."
The main opposition candidate, Alexander Milinkevich, called for new elections. "We did not have an election, but an unconstitutional seizure of power," he said after final results gave him 6 per cent of the vote. "Today we already have lots of people protesting, so now I am asking for them to protest more."
On the bitterly cold streets of Minsk most people willing to give an opinion sided with the president.
"The election was fine, there is democracy here, the media was fine," said Ivan, a young taxi driver.
The Belarus Gazette said Mr Lukashenko's win was so overwhelming that nobody could doubt his popularity. "To hope for any kind of intrigue after that kind of exciting moment could only come from observers of OSCE."
President Vladimir Putin, for whom the arrival in power of pro-Western leaders in Georgia and Ukraine has highlighted Moscow's declining influence in former Soviet territory, quickly congratulated Mr Lukashenko.
"The results of the election testify to the fact that the voters trust in your course," the Kremlin quoted Putin's message of congratulation as saying.
The US, which last year described Mr Lukashenko as "Europe's last dictator", denounced his victory and said the election had been conducted in a "climate of fear".
"We support the call for a new election," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.