Demonstrations Erupt in Belarus Following Election

I wrote a little about the Belorussian election here. In that piece, I mentioned the possibility of unrest, and it seems to have happened.

Demonstrations broke out across the country tonight following the release of an exit poll saying incumbent president Alexander Lukashenko had won 79% of the vote.

Information is coming out in dribs and drabs, with many Belorussian ISPs having ‘routing issues’. Cellular service has also been disrupted since the polls closed.

From what I can find (and with the internet outages information is somewhat spotty) the security services in the capitol, Minsk, are using overwhelming force in dealing with the demonstrations.

It seems that the security reaction elsewhere isn’t nearly as big, given that personnel were moved into Minsk in preparation for tonight.

This situation is fluid, and we’ll do our best to keep you updated as we can. As this post goes to press, it’s 0425 in Minsk. Hopefully daylight gives us a better picture of the situation.