Up to 5,000 opposition supporters braved blizzards and threats of violence from the Belarus authorities to protest last night in central Minsk against what they called a fraudulent election victory by President Alexander Lukashenko.

The Central Election Commission said final preliminary results showed Mr Lukashenko, denounced by the US as Europe's last dictator, had secured 82.6 per cent of the vote. But supporters of the two opposition candidates, Alexander Milinkevich and Alexander Kozulin, converged on the central October Square to claim that the president's true share of the vote was less than 50 per cent and to call for a rerun.