MINSK, March 20 (RIA Novosti) - The main opposition candidate in Belarus' presidential election disputed the official results Monday, accusing the authorities of staging a coup.
"This is an anti-constitutional coup," Alexander Milinkevich told a Monday evening rally in central Minsk in the wake of Sunday's polls, which the opposition said were fraudulent.
Milinkevich, who garnered just 4.4% of the vote according to official figures, said the opposition would never accept the official results. He was the main challenger to the country's long-standing incumbent president, Alexander Lukashenko, who won a landslide victory in Sunday's polls, taking 82.6% percent of the vote.
Dubbed by the West "Europe's last dictator," Lukashenko, a former collective-farm manager who has been running Belarus since 1994, nonetheless enjoys wide support in his country for providing relative economic stability compared with other ex-Soviet states.
According to city police, about 5,000 people have gathered for a peaceful protest in the Belarusian capital's central square, calling for a revote. They have set up a small camp and released white doves - a symbol of peace and freedom - into the skies. Police have so far taken a hands-off approach, sources said.
