By Alexei Adashkin: The Central Election Commission of Belarus has just begun a meeting to sum up the results of the presidential elections held on Sunday. As promised by CEC Chairwoman Lidia Yermoshina on Monday, the final results of the country’s most important political campaign will be announced in five days.
The painstaking work of counting the ballots and analysing the data started at 8 p.m. on Sunday, with preliminary results announced right after the midnight of 12 October. Thus, incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko has won 83.47% of the votes; the second place among the four contenders for presidency belongs to Tatiana Korotkevich. 3.31% and 1.67% of voters have cast their ballots for Sergei Gaidukevich and Nikolai Ulakhovich respectively.
Alexander Lukashenko's election result is the highest in the five election campaigns in which he has participated. Voter turnout was traditionally high – 6,112,364 Belarusians, or about 87% of the voters, have fulfilled their civic duty, over 36% exercising their right to vote early.
As practice shows, the final figures registered in a report by the CEC are not much different from the preliminary data. According to the CEC Chairwoman, the election campaign was “cultural, intelligent and quiet, teaching the candidates how to work”.
