Polls open in Belarus as opposition boycotts election

Despite the opening of the polls, opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko are urging voters to shun the polls, telling them instead to pick mushrooms or cook beetroot soup as a gesture of symbolic opposition.

Two other opposition parties - Just World and the Belarusian Social Democratic Party - are still in the running and members of unregistered opposition movements, such as the Tell the Truth campaign, are listed as unaffiliated candidates.

Mikhail Pashkevich, a leader of Tell the Truth, told the BBC that the election results had been determined in advance: "There are no elections... in Belarus now, only something like a farce, a play that is named election but is not an election."

"This is our reaction to the pseudo-elections for the fake parliament," said Anatoly Lebedko, leader of the United Civic Party.

However, officials maintain that democracy is alive and well in Belarus. Central Election Commission secretary Nikolai Lozovik said the opposition was a "Western creation" and was unpopular in Belarus.

"The opposition does not reflect the people's will," he was reported as saying by the BBC. "Instead they are working in the interests of those Western forces that are sponsoring them."

The vote comes two years after President Lukashenko won a landslide presidential election. Since then, Belarus authorities went on to suppress the opposition in increasing brutal and restrictive crackdowns.

President Lukashenko is often referred to as Europe's last dictator and has ruled Belarus since 1994.

Eleven political prisoners are currently in jail and Amnesty International says authorities have also detained other opposition activists ahead of the election.

The two strongest opposition parties - United Civic and the BPF - pulled out of the race about a week ago.