Meeting with Chairman of CIS Executive Committee – CIS Executive Secretary Sergei Lebedev

The presidential election in Belarus was organized like a celebration, but some attempted to spoil it, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with Sergei Lebedev, Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee – CIS Executive Secretary, head of the CIS observation mission, on 10 August.

“I am grateful that in spite of the situation in the world, especially with the epidemic, you, as a true general, were not afraid to come to Belarus and see the situation, especially in this election period, with your own eyes. I am aware of the assessments of your mission and will be very happy to listen to your feedback and proposals, if there are any, regarding the election campaign. But you have seen that we wanted to turn it into a celebration for people, and they truly responded,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

The President remarked that the election had a record voting turnout, people came to polling stations with their families and children. According to the head of state, the turnout can be even higher after the final results are announced. “Frankly speaking, it is so touching when people come to polling stations with little children. You see, this is a celebration. Certain people wanted to spoil this celebration. We saw them – they showed themselves tonight. We have registered some calls from abroad (you are aware of this as a former intelligence officer). There were calls from Poland, the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic, they tried to guide our sheep, forgive me for this word: they do not understand what they are doing and are being manipulated by others,” the Belarusian leader said.

According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, many people had been denied entry to Belarus in the past 24 hours due to safety reasons. “They had forfeited documents, the majority of them did not know why they were coming,” he explained. “However, some people were wandering around the city last night, tried to attack policemen. They even did a few times, but policemen held out and responded in a decent manner,” the President noted.

At the same time, the head of state said that there were casualties from both sides. In his words, about 50 citizens and 30 police officers were injured in clashes.