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U.S. calls for new Belarus vote

(CNN) -- European monitors and the United States have condemned the weekend presidential election in Belarus that saw President Alexander Lukashenko re-elected in a landslide, with the White House joining opposition calls for a new vote.

More than 500 observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) watched the process, and the organization said balloting in the former Soviet republic was marred by the "arbitrary use of state power and widespread detentions."

"I would have liked nothing more than to be able to make a positive statement about the election we just observed," said Geert-Hinrich Ahrens, head of the OSCE's mission to Belarus. "Unfortunately, there were too many serious violations of international election standards."

Lukashenko claimed 82.6 percent of the vote, election officials announced early Monday.

The top opposition candidate, Alexander Milinkevich, took 6 percent; another opposition leader, Sergey Gaidukevich, got 3.5 percent, and a fourth candidate, Alexander Kozulin, got 2.3 percent, according to state-run broadcaster ATN.

U.S. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the presidential race "was conducted in a climate of fear," and he threatened international sanctions against Belarus if it did not hold a new vote.

"It included arrests and beatings and fraud," McClellan told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to President George W. Bush's speech in Cleveland. "We applaud democrats in Belarus for their courage and peaceful stand to reclaim their freedom."

The European Union said Monday the election was marred by a "climate of intimidation," The Associated Press reported.

Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said the opposition in the former Soviet republic "was systematically intimidated" in campaigning for Sunday's presidential elections in which President Alexander Lukashenko was declared the winner with an overwhelming majority.

But the head of the observer mission of a grouping of former Soviet states called the election open and transparent.

Vladimir Rushailo, head of the Commonwealth of Independent States' mission, said its 467 observers concluded that, despite some technical violations, the Sunday elections had taken place within the requirements of Belarusian law, AP said.

Lukashenko, who has consolidated power since taking office in 1995, said the violations were on the opposition side -- and included international meddling.

"The presidential elections are over, but they were held in conditions of unprecedented foreign pressure and aggressive behavior by the opposition," he said.

"The majority voted for the incumbent president, but what is more important, they backed the line for the building of a strong and prosperous state."

Thousands of opposition supporters gathered in the center of the Belarus capital Monday for a second night, many hoping their protest would gather momentum, The Associated Press reports.

Their numbers were smaller than on election night and prospects for a Ukraine-style "Orange Revolution" seemed remote. But protesters set up a dozen small tents and vowed to turn the demonstration into a round-the-clock presence.

"The people want to stay until victory, and I'm with them," Milinkevich said, according to AP.

Authorities put on a show of force, with busloads of riot police fanning out into nearby streets and courtyards and preventing people from approaching the city's main square.

McClellan cautioned Lukashenko's government against a clampdown on the opposition after the vote, saying, "The United States will continue to stand with the people of Belarus and support their aspirations to reclaim their rightful place among the communities of democracy."

On Friday, the OSCE condemned arrests of opposition candidates and their supporters and criticized Belarusian officials for warning that peaceful demonstrators could face terrorism charges.

Lukashenko has long been accused of suppressing opposition in the former Soviet republic and has criticized the Western-inspired political movements that toppled governments in neighboring Ukraine and two other former Soviet republics, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.

In 2005, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Belarus the last "outpost of tyranny" in Europe.

In 2004, the U.S. Congress approved American assistance for democratic political parties, non-governmental organizations and media and barred all non-humanitarian aid to the government.

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