Last night, opposition demonstrations in Belarus continued for the third day in a row. The protests started after election officials announced that incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko (Alyaksandr Lukashenka) had won the elections on August 9, thereby extending his already 26-year rule. On August 11, a pro-government Telegram channel published a video message from Lukashenko’s main competitor during the elections, opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya (Svitlana Tsikhanouskaya). The video raised a lot of questions, since Tikhanovskaya was reading directly from a piece of a paper. Without looking up, she called for an end to the demonstrations in Belarus. Allegedly, the video was recorded at the Central Election Commission’s office in Minsk. Hours later, reports surfaced that Tikhanovskaya had left the country for Lithuania. While yesterday’s demonstrations saw less protesters than the night before, law enforcement continued to respond violently. One incident saw riot police dispersing people who were bringing flowers to the Pushkin Metro Station to commemorate a demonstrator who was killed there the night before. According to Belarusian police officials, more than 1,000 people were detained during last night’s demonstrations and at least 50 people were hospitalized with injuries.
