MINSK, Belarus—Tensions were high in Belarus as the country held a presidential election on Aug. 9. Eight staff members for the main challenger to the authoritarian president were reportedly detained by police and one of the campaign’s leading figures fled the country.
The election pits President Alexander Lukashenko, who has held an iron grip on the former Soviet nation since 1994, against four others in an atmosphere charged with wide public dismay over the country’s deteriorating economy, political repression, and Lukashenko’s brushoff of the coronavirus threat.
