Access to Belarus-based websites restricted ahead of main election day
January 25, Pozirk. Belarusian providers have restricted access to virtual hosting from abroad, making Belarus-based websites unavailable for users outside the country for three days, hoster.by, the largest domain registration service in Belarus, reports.
Restrictions have entered into force at 10 a.m. this morning and are expected to be lifted at midnight on January 27, it noted.
The dates coincide with the last day of early voting and the main voting day in the Belarusian presidential election. The vote is taking place in a purged political landscape amid a new wave of crackdown on regime critics as Alaksandar Łukašenka, in power since 1994, intends to secure another term in office.
Some 36 percent of voters have already cast their ballots in the four days of early voting, the Central Election Commission (CEC) reported yesterday.
The country has not held a single free and fair election since 1996 by the standards of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Łukašenka boasts that he personally authorizes internet shutdowns
November 22, Pozirk. Alaksandar Łukašenka admitted that he personally authorizes Internet shutdowns at a meeting with professors and students at Minsk State Linguistic University (MDLU). The meeting comes four years after scores of MDLU students and lecturers were arrested, beaten, …