Hundreds Arrested In Belarus Protests

Update: NPR's Andy Carvin notes you can follow Belarussian Twitter users here - you can see all tweets within a 100 mile radius of Minsk. Use the translation icon on the right side of the page.

The BBC says police have detained protesters who turned out after President Alexander Lukashenko claimed re-election for another term, including six presidential candidates who opposed him. Belarussian election officials say he got 80% of the vote. Election monitors from the OSCE differed, declaring:

While voting on election day was overall assessed positively, the process deteriorated significantly during the vote count, with observers assessing almost half of vote counts monitored as bad or very bad.

Lidia Kelly writes for Reuters Lukashenko may win by beating up opponents and making up with Russia but he'll still have to solve the current account deficit problem, now at 14% of Belarussian GDP.  As for the beatings? NPR's David Greene was in Minsk as hundreds of people marched and reports two of the presidential candidates were hurt. Some protesters tried to break into a government building. RT, a Russian news agency, has raw video.