August 13, 2020

Anna Murray 

On August 13th, thousands of barefoot women dressed in white, holding flowers to protest against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who declared a sixth term with 80.23% of the presidential vote on August 9th while being accused of distorting the election polls.

The independent monitoring group "Honest People" claimed that Lukashenko’s main opponent Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who stepped into the competition after her husband was arrested and jailed in the run-up to the vote, had won in more than 80 polling stations across Belarus, according to statistics. 

Security forces leveraged batons, stun grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets to hit the protesters again and again. Around 7000 people were arrested, and over 50 journalists have been interned or hurt during protests, according to Belarusian authorities.

Both the European Union and the United States are considering imposing sanction against Belarus for the domestic violence, while autocratic regimes such as Russia and China came out in favor of Lukashenko.

Photo:Webshot.