Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka said on October 11 that the authorities restrained themselves from intervening against the street protests that the opposition staged during the presidential election campaign. According to him, it was done in order to allow election monitors to assess the opposition’s behavior.
However, Lukashenka added, the time when these protests went unpunished is over.
«The election ends today at eight o’clock p.m. It’s the time to start living according to the law. We will not allow anyone to destabilize the situation,» the incumbent president said at a Minsk polling station after casting his vote.
Lukashenka also told journalists at the polling station that Belarusian border guards have detained an unspecified number of people with firearms who tried to enter Belarus from Ukraine.
