Belarusier demonstrerar i väntan på presidentens svar

The 2020 Belarusian presidential election was held on Sunday, 9 August 2020. Early voting began on 4 August and ran until 8 August.The president was elected directly to serve for five years. Incumbent Alexander Lukashenko was reelected to a sixth term in office, with official results crediting him with 80% of the vote. Lukashenko has won every presidential election since 1994, with all but the first being labelled by international monitors as neither free nor fair.Opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya claimed to have won a decisive first-round victory with at least 60% of the vote, and called on Lukashenko to start negotiations. Her campaign subsequently formed the Coordination Council to facilitate a transfer of power and stated that it was ready to organize "long-term protests" against the official results. Initially open to dialogue, Lukashenko gradually stiffened his position on negotiations and reforms, eventually accusing the opposition of extremism sponsored by external, "Western" sources. All opposition candidates have filed appeals to the Central Election Commission calling for the results to be invalidated. The election was marred by allegations of widespread electoral fraud. Numerous countries refused to accept the result of the election, as did the European Union, which imposed sanctions on Belarusian officials deemed to be responsible for "violence, repression and election fraud". The results of the election led to widespread protests in Belarus.