About 600 opposition supporters braved icy winds and driving sleet in the Belurussian capital Minsk overnight to protest for a fourth successive day over a presidential election they claim was rigged.
The protests, unprecedented in the tightly controlled former Soviet state and posing a challenge to President Alexander Lukashenko, attracted about 5,000 people yesterday and the opposition has called for a huge rally on Saturday to demand an election rerun.
"Frankly, I am surprised (the authorities) have not crushed the protest yet," Galina, a 21-year-old student who declined to give her surname, said as she put a blanket on top of her coat to beat the cold in October Square in the capital Minsk.
Riot police were stationed in nearby streets as they had been on previous days, but most disappeared overnight.
Mr Lukashenko (51), criticized by the opposition and the West for 12 years of Soviet-style rule, won Sunday's elections with an official vote tally of 82.6 per cent. Nearest rival Alexander Milinkevich, with six per cent, called the poll fraudulent.
The result has set the United States and other Western countries at odds with Russia. Washington, echoing the findings of international poll monitors, has accused Mr Lukashenko of intimidating opponents while Moscow has congratulated him.
The protest has had strong echoes of the highly organized 2004 "Orange Revolution" that brought hundreds of thousands on to the streets in neighboring Ukraine. But there has been no sign of the demonstration reaching the same scale.
The protesters who stayed in the square overnight were mostly young people and the number was higher than the previous night. More than 20 tents have been set up by the protesters.
"Long live Belarus" and "Milinkevich is our president," they chanted from time to time, also playing music through loudspeakers. Authorities refused to turn on lighting.
Protesters, backed by supporters bringing hot drinks and food to the square, have waved the red-and-white national flag banned by Mr Lukashenko during a drive to reinstate Soviet symbols.
Mr Lukashenko said his victory marked the failure of an opposition bid to mount a pro-Western coup in Belarus, which has a population of about ten million and borders European Union members Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.
Russia is to the east and is Belarus's main trading partner.