Reply #9: Belarus: European Observers – It Stinks!

[autorank]

Talk about stealing an election. This Russian favorite got 80% plus of the vote. His opponent got 6% or some ridiculous number. No wonder the people are pissed off. This is old style Communist election tactics. Just like like crazy. Saps the will of the people. Not this time.



Belarus Leader's Victory Rejected By U.S. as OSCE Finds Fraud
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a7LhETvO9zPc&refer=us#

March 20 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. joined European observers in rejecting election results in Belarus that gave President Alexander Lukashenko a third term, after concluding that the declared win was engineered through fraud and intimidation.

``This campaign was conducted in a climate of fear that included arrests and beatings,'' White House spokesman Scott McClellan said today. ``We call for a new election.''

Lukashenko won 82.6 percent of the vote, trouncing his main rival, the opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich, who garnered 6 percent, according to the Belarus Central Electoral Commission. The Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said about 400 observers found ``substantial empirical evidence'' of fraud. The elections were not ``free and fair,'' the group said.

Lukashenko, in power since 1994, has been assailed by the European Union, U.S. and United Nations for jailing opposition politicians, clamping down on the media, and changing the constitution to scrap a two-term limit for the presidency.