|
After Lukashenko confirmed he was running for re-election in 2005, opposition groups began to seek a single candidate. On 16 October 2005, on the Day of Solidarity With Belarus, the political groups Zubr and Third Way Belarus encouraged all opposition parties to rally behind one candidate to oppose Lukashenko in the 2006 election. Their chosen candidate was Alexander Milinkevich.[46] Lukashenko reacted by saying that anyone going to opposition protests would have their necks wrung "as one might a duck".[44] On 19 March 2006, exit polls showed Lukashenko winning a third term in a landslide, amid opposition reports of vote-rigging and fear of violence. The EcooM organisation gave Lukashenko 84.2% of the vote and Milinkevich just 2%, while the Belarusian Republican Youth Union gave Lukashenko 84.2% and Milinkevich 3.1%. The Gallup Organisation noted that EcooM and the Belarusian Republican Youth Union are government-controlled and both released their exit poll results before noon on election day, although voting stations closed at 8 P.M.[47] Belarusian authorities vowed to prevent any large-scale demonstrations following the election (such as those that marked the Orange Revolution in Ukraine). Despite that, the amount of demonstrators after the election was the biggest the opposition had seen in years, with nightly protests and demonstrations in Minsk. The largest protest occurred on election night where reporters for the Associated Press estimated around 10,000 people.[48] Election observers from the Russia-led Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) differed on the Belarusian election.[49] The OSCE declared on 20 March 2006 that the "presidential election failed to meet OSCE commitments for democratic elections." Lukashenko "permitted State authority to be used in a manner which did not allow citizens to freely and fairly express their will at the ballot box... a pattern of intimidation and the suppression of independent voices... was evident throughout the campaign."[50] The heads of all 25 EU countries declared that the election was "fundamentally flawed".[51] In contrast, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs declared, "Long before the elections, the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights had declared that they [the elections] would be illegitimate and it was pretty biased in its commentaries on their progress and results, thus playing an instigating role."[51] Lukashenko later stated that he had rigged the election results, but against himself, in order to obtain a majority more typical of European countries. Although he had won 93.5% of the vote, he said, he had directed the government to announce a result of 86%
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2015 20:53
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 19, 2024 12:54 |
|
|
Obligatory bernie sanders 2016 post
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2015 20:55
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2015 21:07
|
|
|
After Turks went to the polls in a round of contentious local elections on Sunday, power outages forced some voting centers to count votes by candlelight. Accusations of election fraud ran rampant, especially in the closely-watched races in the capital. In an attempt to ease voter worry, Turkey’s Energy Minister Taner Yıldız has now come forward with a culprit for the power cuts: a cat. "I am not joking, friends," he said, according to the Agence France-Presse. "A cat walked into a transformer unit. That’s why there was a power cut. It’s not the first time this has happened." The statement prompted widespread ridicule and anger among Turks who are increasingly at odds with controversial Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling party. The local elections were widely seen as a referendum on Erdogan’s 11-year rule, and the party emerged victorious despite months of anti-government protests and a dramatic corruption scandal that appeared to implicate Erdogan in fraud. Many Turks are skeptical about the power outages that occurred in major city centers, with some people alleging that the government tampered with vote counting. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/01/turkey-election-power-outages-cat_n_5068226.html
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2015 21:13
|
|
|
Tories in the UK took the idea of electioning police commissioners from the US and brought it to the UK. Turnout was terribly low and a lot of the turn out was spoilt ballots. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20352539 Newport had 0 turnout. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-20355358                         You get the idea.
|
|
#
?
Jul 30, 2015 08:34
|
|
