World News for Students of English

14-08-2020 07:00

Europe’s last dictator and Belarus authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, has won his sixth term in office, with over 80% of the votes.

Thousands of people took to the streets of the capital, Minsk, and other cities in the country to protest the early vote count because they believe that it has been officially manipulated. The main opposition challenger, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, disputed the election results, and she claimed that she had absolutely opposite information. Tikhanovskaya is an English teacher with no political experience, and she came under heavy pressure as eight members of her staff were arrested over the weekend.

Protesters have been taking to the streets for weeks, as the two main opposition leaders were denied places on the ballot. One of the leaders was jailed, and the other one fled to Russia with his children.

Difficult words: authoritarian (someone who forces people to obey rules that are and they cannot speak out against the leader), dispute (to argue about something), ballot (a sheet of paper with listed candidates on which voters mark their vote).

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