At least four election candidates and hundreds of opposition demonstrators were being held today after police cracked down on a protest against the re-election of Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko.
After a night of mayhem in central Minsk involving riot police and thousands of demonstrators, the central election commission declared in the early hours that Mr Lukashenko, in power since 1994, had secured nearly 80 per cent of the vote.
Last night up to 10,000 people marched through the snow-bound capital chanting "Out!", "Long Live Belarus!" and other anti-Lukashenko slogans in one of the most significant challenges to his iron-fisted, 16-year rule.
Then riot police waded in, beating people with batons on Independence Square. Some protesters in the ex-Soviet republic threw stones and snowballs at police.
Mr Lukashenko today praised police for standing firm against "barbarism and destruction" after opposition protests. "There will be no revolution or criminality in Belarus,” he said.
Opposition parties say supporters of the 56-year-old former Soviet state farm director had rigged his re-election at the vote counting stages, much as they had in 2006.
All eyes were now on the verdict of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) which fielded a small army of observers across the country of 10 million.
The OSCE, whose judgement on the fairness of the election is seen as key to possible European Union financial aid for the ex-Soviet republic, was scheduled to hold a news conference later today.
But neighbouring Poland, an EU member, accused the security forces of brutality and called for the immediate release of those detained.
A parallel observer mission from the Russian-led Commonwealth of Independent States gave the election a clean bill of health. "The mission did not find any facts that put under doubt the legitimacy of the elections," mission chief Sergei Lebedev told journalists. He said the police had acted correctly and lawfully.
Reuters