Crowd swells on Minsk`s central square 14:34, 22/03/2006
Hundreds of protesters remained on Oktyabrskaya Square in Minsk at 2p.m. on Tuesday with more people trickling in.
Historian Yury Glushakov, a member of the Gomel City Soviet, said that at least ten supporters of opposition candidate Aleksandr Milinkevich have come from Gomel and more "reinforcements" were on the way from the regional capital.
Mr. Milinkevich denounced the election, which gave Aleksandr Lukashenko a third presidential term, as fraudulent and demanded a rerun.
"It is not so much important that people have taken to the central square in the capital, it is important that they have overcome their fear and stayed here overnight surrounded by police," Mr. Glushakov told BelaPAN.
He said he had worked with the Local History Museum in Gomel but was pressured to quit his job over his involvement in politics.
Some protesters said around 100 Polish students intended to support the opposition in Minsk but were denied entry visas.
The central election commission`s final count had Mr. Lukashenko winning 82.6 percent of the vote, with Mr. Milinkevich`s six percent.
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