Azernews.Az

No representatives of the political opposition in Belarus were elected to parliament in the September 23 legislative elections, according to preliminary results posted by the Central Election Commission , Radio Liberty reported.

In all, 109 deputies were elected with clear majorities.

One seat will be contested in a second round, as neither candidate secured the necessary 50 percent.

The new parliament will include three deputies from the Communist Party of Belarus and one from the Agrarian Party, both of which ran on platforms supporting President Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

Most oppositions parties withdrew their candidates and urged voters to stay away from the polls.

Officially, turnout was 74.3 percent.

Earlier, opposition leaders had cast serious doubt over official turnout figures.

"The election commission is unscrupulously lying as these figures are so radically different from those of observers," Vitaly Rymashevsky, co-chairman of the Belarus Christian Democracy Party, told AFP.

Hard-line President Alyaksandr Lukashenka had denounced opposition leaders as "cowards" for urging people to boycott the election in protest at the continued detention of political prisoners and election fraud.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe had some 300 observers to monitor the election and will give its assessment later on September 24.

Human rights organizations say the lead-up to the poll was marked by arrests and detention of opposition activists.

Opposition groups were barred from holding street protests or handing out leaflets to support their boycott call.