Lukashenko heads for victory in Belarussian election

Supporters of opposition presidential candidate Alexander Milinkevich attend a rally under heavy snow in Minsk. Picture / Reuters

MINSK - Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko headed for overwhelming electoral victory on Sunday, but his liberal rival's backers massed in a square accusing him of rigging the vote and demanding a re-run.

Official returns from Sunday's contest, with 72.2 per cent of the vote counted, gave Lukashenko 82.3 per cent to 5.8 per cent for main opposition candidate Alexander Milinkevich. Officials were due to make further announcements on Monday morning.

In one of the biggest opposition rallies in years, more than 10,000 massed in October Square to denounce the president's 12 year rule.

Lukashenko, fearing the kind of uprising that bore pro-Western governments to power in the ex-Soviet republics of Georgia and Ukraine, has threatened to treat anyone disrupting order after the polls as a terrorist.

After nearly three hours of protests amid heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures, Milinkevich urged his supporters to march in orderly fashion through Minsk town centre and regroup again on Monday night.

"We will win freedom," he told supporters. "Our fight is sacred. Freedom will win. Belarus will win."

Standing alongside the second opposition hopeful at the rally, academic Alexander Kozulin, he described the size of the protest as "a colossal victory. People have overcome their fear. Our objective is new and fair elections."

A fourth candidate on the ballot was an ally of the president.

Lukashenko, accused of rigging elections since the mid-1990s, calls his rivals Western-funded troublemakers.

But police, numerous in and near the square, did not move against protesters, who waved European Union and blue opposition flags.

Placards in the crowd read: "We believe! We can do it! We shall win!"

Lukashenko, known as "batka" or father, tells Belarussians he has offered stability and relative prosperity compared to other ex-Soviet states. He remains broadly popular, particularly among elderly and rural voters.

Election officials announced a record turnout of 92.6 per cent, with only minor irregularities recorded on election day and during the campaign.

The opposition rejected the returns as blatant fraud and said the campaigning was marred by the arrests of dozens of opposition activists and mass intimidation.

Long before voting ended, two pro-government institutes had issued "exit polls" showing Lukashenko capturing more than 80 per cent to about four per cent for his main rival.

Lukashenko hit back at longstanding US allegations that Belarus was the "last dictatorship in Europe", denouncing President George W. Bush as "terrorist no. 1 on the planet".

Law enforcement bodies, backed by state television, accused the president's opponents in the final days of campaigning of using the poll as a screen to seize power.

Both the European Union and the United States vow to boost sanctions against Belarus if hundreds of independent observers now in Belarus say the vote is unfair.

Despite Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin's distaste for the president, Russia will almost certainly give quiet approval to the polls as Belarus is its only ally on its western borders.

- REUTERS