The presidential elections in Belarus were neither free nor fair, according to a statement by EU diplomat Josep Borrell, made on behalf of the union.
However, the elections were neither free nor fair.
The head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on her Twitter welcomed Borrell’s statement and reiterated his assessment of the election results in Belarus.
On August 9, presidential elections were held in Belarus. According to the updated CEC data, the incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko is gaining 80.08% of the vote. He has been leading the country for over 26 years.
On Sunday evening, mass unauthorized protests began in a number of Belarusian cities, which continued on Monday evening. Protesters in the center of Minsk erected barricades from garbage cans. Police fired tear gas, water cannons and stun grenades against them, and pushed protesters out of the city center.