Thousands of protesters have rallied in the Belarus capital of Minsk and other cities for a fourth straight night decrying an election they say was rigged and a subsequent brutal police crackdown on demonstrations.
Groups formed human chains to protest President Alexander Lukashenko's reelection and the ruthless response to peaceful protests. Motorists blared horns in support and, in some sections of the city, slowed to a crawl to block police vehicles.
Similar protests were held in at least five other cities, according to the Viasna rights group.
Earlier, hundreds of women braved police and security in Minsk to protest at the violent suppression of demonstrations.
Police moved to disperse them - but stopped short of violent tactics they have used previously, that have left hundreds injured and thousands detained.
Protesters are contesting the official count showing President Alexander Lukashenko winning a sixth term with 80 per cent of Sunday's vote and the main opposition challenger with 10 per cent. Crowds have taken to the streets every night since to demand a recount.
Authorities have responded with a crackdown that was unusually brutal even for Mr Lukashenko's 26-year authoritarian rule. Police dispersed protesters with tear gas, stun grenades, water cannons and rubber bullets and beat them with truncheons. Black-uniformed officers chased protesters into residential buildings and deliberately targeted journalists, beating many and breaking their cameras.
"We stand for a peaceful protest," said 23 year old Ksenia Ilyashevich, who joined other women in Minsk protest. "We worked up the courage and came out to rally. ... Hundreds and thousands of Belarusians express solidarity with us, but are afraid (to come out). We stand here for all."
In three nights of protests, at least 6,000 people have been detained and hundreds injured. Anguished relatives were besieging prisons across Belarus trying to find their missing relatives.
A new movement of social media is seeing police officers in Belarus break rank, burning or tearing-up their uniforms in defiance of the Lukashenko government.
Sixty-five-year-old Mr Lukashenko has led the country with an iron fist since 1994, relentlessly stifling dissent and winning the nickname of "Europe's last dictator" in the West.
This year the economic damage caused by the coronavirus and the president's dismissive response to the pandemic, has fuelled broad anger, helping swell the opposition ranks - but that has only elicited a more forceful crackdown from the Belarusian leader.
His top challenger, a 37-year-old former teacher and political novice Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, left for neighbouring Lithuania on Tuesday, just hours after publicly disputing the vote results and submitting a formal request for a recount.
She urged her supporters to end rallies in a video statement her associates said was recorded under pressure from law enforcement officials.
Belarusian presidential candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya gestures during a rally. Source: Getty
The crackdown has drawn harsh criticism from the European Union and the United States.
"We watched an election that we were very concerned about," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday during a visit to the Czech Republic. "It wasn't held in a way that was free and fair."
The European Union foreign ministers scheduled a meeting on Friday to discuss the crackdown.
In 2016, the European Union lifted most of the sanctions it slapped on Belarus in 2004 after Mr Lukashenko freed political prisoners and allowed protests.
