Belarusian presidential election, 2010
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Alexander Lukashenko
Independent
Alexander Lukashenko
Independent
A presidential election was held in Belarus on 19 December 2010. The election was originally planned for the beginning of 2011. However, the final date was set during an extraordinary session of the National Assembly of Belarus on September 14, 2010.
Of the ten candidates, incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko was declared the winner by the Central Election Commission with 79.67% of the votes. Andrej Sannikaŭ (Andrei Sannikov) received the second-highest percentage. After a protest was violently suppressed by riot police the night after the election, hundreds of protesters and seven presidential candidates were arrested by the KGB – including runner-up Sannikaŭ.
Western countries decried the election as a farce and an egregious affront to democracy and human rights. The United States and the European Union called for the release of all imprisoned former candidates, but took no further action except a travel ban on Lukashenko. By contrast, countries such as Syria,China,Vietnam, and Russia congratulated the re-elected incumbent.
During protests in the aftermath of the 2004 referendum and simultaneous 2004 parliamentary election, there were several arrests of protesters against the election and referendum results and reports of opposition candidates being beaten by police. More demonstrators were arrested during further protests in the aftermath of the 2006 presidential election, the so-called "Jeans Revolution". During Lukashenko's presidency Belarus has never held a poll seen as fair by Western monitors.
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