Belarus opposition vows protests if polls flawed :: Charter'97 :: News

The main Belarus opposition candidate for president said on Friday millions of his countrymen would flood the streets in protest if presidential polls on March 19 are not free and fair. Alexander Milinkevich, an independent, is backed by leading liberal and nationalist opposition parties to challenge incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko, accused by the West of crushing dissent, abusing human rights and rigging elections.

"We will fight to make the elections fair. If they are not held in accordance with the law, we will go to the streets," Milinkevich told a news conference after talks with Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz.

In an interview with private Polish news channel TVN24, Milinkevich said: "We have not had real elections for a long time and I think that even this time we may not be able to force the authorities to conduct fair polls.

"But there are millions of people who want to live differently and I think they will flood the streets, like in Ukraine."

Lukashenko denies rights abuses, but has vowed to prevent any upheaval similar to street protests a year ago which tilted Ukraine politically towards the West, and away from Moscow.

Marcinkiewicz did not openly back Milinkevich`s presidential bid but he repeated that Poland would help finance a radio station to broadcast news into neighbouring Belarus.

"We have two goals -- a radio station for Belarus, which should be launched over the next few weeks, and sending observers from international organisations to watch over the presidential elections," said Marcinkiewicz, whose conservative party is rooted in Poland`s anti-communist Solidarity movement.

Called "Europe`s last dictator" by the United States, Lukashenko has run Belarus, a country of 10 million people, with Soviet-era authority. He has also stirred conflict with Poland.

He sent commandos to take control of the headquarters of a leading Polish ethnic minority group, which was accused by Minsk of trying to format a Ukraine-style revolution in Belarus.

The European Union and the United States, which have barred entry to top Belarusian officials, say they will tighten sanctions if March polls are deemed neither free nor fair.