{"id":1518865,"date":"2024-02-25T19:34:35","date_gmt":"2024-02-25T19:34:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rferl.org\/a\/ukrainian-grain-destroyed-poland-farmers-protest-border\/32834662.html"},"modified":"2024-02-25T19:34:35","modified_gmt":"2024-02-25T19:34:35","slug":"deputy-prime-minister-says-160-tons-of-ukrainian-grain-destroyed-in-poland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/02\/25\/deputy-prime-minister-says-160-tons-of-ukrainian-grain-destroyed-in-poland\/","title":{"rendered":"Deputy Prime Minister Says 160 Tons Of Ukrainian Grain Destroyed In Poland"},"content":{"rendered":"
Polls have closed for Belarus's tightly controlled parliamentary elections, which were held under heavy security at polling stations and amid calls for a boycott by the country's beleaguered opposition.<\/p>\n
The February 25 elections were widely expected to solidify the position of the country's authoritarian leader, Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Only four parties, all of which support Lukashenka's policies, were officially registered to compete in the polls -- Belaya Rus, the Communist Party, the Liberal Democratic Party, and the Party of Labor and Justice. About a dozen parties were denied<\/a><\/strong> registration last year.<\/p>\n Polls opened for the general elections at 8 a.m. local time and closed at 8 p.m.<\/p>\n According to the Central Election Commission, as of 6 p.m., voter turnout<\/a><\/strong> was 70.3 percent.<\/p>\n Results are expected to be announced on February 26, the commission said.<\/p>\n Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who has claimed her victory over Lukashenka in the 2020 presidential election was stolen, described the elections as a \"farce\" and called for a boycott.<\/p>\n \"There are no people on the ballot who would offer real changes because the regime only has allowed puppets convenient for it to take part,\" Tsikhanouskaya said in a video statement from her exile in Lithuania, where she moved following a brutal crackdown on protests against the 2020 election results. \"We are calling to boycott this senseless farce, to ignore this election without choice.\"<\/p>\n In a separate message<\/a><\/strong> posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, Tsikhanouskaya said on February 25 that her video address to the Belarusian people about the elections and Russia's invasion of Ukraine had been displayed on 2,000 screens in public spaces throughout Belarus. The action, she said, was organized by a coalition of former police and security forces officers.<\/p>\n The U.S. State Department blasted what it called a \"sham\" election, held amid a \"climate of fear.\"<\/p>\n \"The United States condemns the Lukashenka regime's sham parliamentary and local elections that concluded today in Belarus,\" it said in a statement<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n \"The elections were held in a climate of fear under which no electoral processes could be called democratic. The regime continues to hold more than 1,400 political prisoners. All independent political figures have either been detained or exiled. All independent political parties were denied registration.\"<\/p>\n \"The Belarusian people deserve better,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n The general elections were the first to be held in Belarus since the 2020 presidential election, which handed Lukashenka a sixth term in office. More than 35,000 people were arrested in the monthslong mass protests that followed the controversial election.<\/p>