Minsk sport shops have been ordered to stop selling tents to keep protestors from camping out on October Square, the opposition claims ahead of Sunday’s presidential elections which look likely to hand President Alexander Lukashenko a fourth term in office.
“There are no tents. When they will reappear, I don’t know,” a sports shop salesman in Minsk’s central shopping complex told RIA Novosti.
Opposition leaders intend to protest if the 56-year-old incumbent extends his 16-year reign at the helm and some intend to camp out in central Minsk as they did for five days after the 2006 elections until they were dispersed by police.
“They are scared of the people’s protests and that is why they are preventing people from going out for lengthy protests in the square,” Yaroslav Romanchuk, an opposition candidate and deputy head of the United Civic Party, told RIA Novosti.
“That is why they intimidate and prevent people from going out, and portray opposition candidates as radicals and revolutionaries,” said Romanchuk.
Riot police vans were stationed round the corner from a calm demonstration on Thursday led by oppositionist Andrei Sannikov and poet-turned-politician Vladimir Nekliaev but did not interfere.
Lukashenko, the ex collective farm boss who has ruled Belarus since 1994, on Thursday belittled the weak nine candidate opposition who have not united as a single force as in 2006.
“Why does the opposition make provocations?” Lukashenko asked journalists on Thursday. “They need provocations. They understand perfectly well that for them these elections probably hold nothing for them, so they need provocations.”
Romanchuk says he will protest peacefully on Sunday alongside Sannikov and Nekliaev.
But analysts are not convinced they have the momentum to carry through ten-below temperatures with the approach of Christmas and New Year festivities. “I’m not sure how long the protests are going to stick around,” said Jana Kobzova, a Belarus expert for the Council for European Relations.
MINSK, December 17 (Tom Balmforth, RIA Novosti)
