After a flawed — to say the least — referendum in 2004 to allow for unlimited consecutive presidential candidacies, Dictator Alexander Lukashenko is running for the third time for president again today. People will go to the polls, voting without freedom of conscience or the knowledge that their vote is even tallied. The regime is looking to avoid the same kind of people power revolution that has brought down entire governments in Georgia, Ukraine, and Lebanon on days that were marred with the kind of phony elections that Belarus is holding at this very moment. To do this, the authorities have gone to great lengths to assure their victory. It has become apparent that Lukashenko will stop at nothing to keep power. Opposition is death.

Literally.

The government has been busy. Over the last few days up until this very moment alone:

– Some 300 opposition activists have been detained and given sentences extending just past the election date.
– Arrested and beaten one of the opposition candidates, Alexander Kozulin.
– Destroyed hundreds of thousands of copies of independent newspapers.
– Expelled independent election observers from Georgia and other countries.
– Hacked and blocked opposition internet sites.
– Lukashenko himself has threatened to “twist their heads off,” referring to potential opposition protestors.
– The head of the KGB has threatened opposition demonstrators with the death sentence, and charged that they are planning a military coup.
– I received a press release from Gallup stating that it was impossible to conduct a reliable exit poll in the country, and that the two pro-government groups releasing exit polls favoring Lukashenko above 80% only interviewed three people per polling station.
– Forced a significant portion of the population to vote days early, making the results that much easier to forge.
– Cases of more than one ballot paper being handed to voters has been witnessed at most polling stations, along with the boxes themselves not being sealed.

The list goes on. Belarus has one of the most repressive governments on the planet, and Lukashenko is bent on killing anyone in order to stay in power. The head of the KGB doesn’t seem willing to bend either. What it will come down to, then, is if the police and military are willing to fire on demonstrators should the order be given. They have never given a hint of bending before so there is no reason to believe they will this time.

Yet there is still hope. Democratic opposition candidate Aleksander Milinkevich and another opposition candidate, Aleksander Kazulin, have called on opposition followers to demonstrate in Minsk’s October Square to contest for a free and fair election, regardless of the outcome. They have instructed them to remain peaceful so that their protest is seen as moral and righteous should the government decide to take action against them. They will also be carrying flowers, as they did during other similar “revolutions,” to give to the policemen.

Will the police hold their fire and blend into the crowd?… We will see tonight at 8 p.m. as protestors are already beginning to gather.

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UPDATE: Here’s the latest news about what’s going on.

The polls have closed and the two opposition candidates have decided not to recognize the results. The are calling for a rally demanding free and fair elections. People are gathering in October Square and according to Charter 97 news service, which is under something of a DDoS attack right now and is running very slow, the number of people has doubled to three thousand in less than an hour. Milinkevich and Kozulin are due to arrive soon. This despite subway terminals being shut down on purpose and the authorities preparing to blockade the entire area. Mainstream media confirmation of this gathering here. Let’s see if there will be a blue/denim revolution or not. More soon.

MORE: Alright, Reuters has the number at 10,000 and Charter 97 has the same number. People are chanting “Long live Belarus” and “Mi-lin-ke-vich” while waving nationa flags — the ones banned by Lukashenko — as well as the European Union flag. They are arriving by the dozens and hundreds with flowers and balloons. People are honking horns and busily dialing their friends and family to come to the square. As of now, no police action has been taken. That was posted to the news as of 11:30 Belarus time. But why haven’t the police moved? These are the biggest protests Belarus has seen in years. Do they think the they will just fizzle, are they planning what to do, or is their some kind of conflict within the ruling elite and security forces?

WOW: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Belarus service is estimating the crowd to be up to 30,000 people and growing. LUFT says possibly 50,000. It is saying that people continue to flood into the square despite the closure of the bus and metro service. It is getting very late and cold, however, so Milinkevich is moving the people toward Victory Square and has called for another meeting tomorrow.

Alexander Kozulin addressed the crowd on the square saying, “People, you are free! You are not afraid of anything any more. A revolution has really occurred in Belarus. No one would ever make you kneel. We are free people!” and called on the police to stop serving the dictator. Well-known artists, musicians, and intellectuals are speaking to the crowd and according to Charter 97, well-known journalist Iryna Khalip called Lukashenko, “simply ridiculous, because he is a shit!” I guess that falls into the category of an anti-Lukashenko slogan! At 11:00 p.m. they began leading a 10,000 strong crowd toward Victory Square. More soon.

PROTEST BABE ALERT: The government is doomed.

GOING HOME: Veronica Khokhlova is working overtime liveblogging this as well. She translates a post from LiveJournal user lipski that says people are beginning to go home because it’s cold and can’t hear what people are saying very well. He says that people are a bit disappointed due to the snow storm, but in general are happy to see the strength they have in numbers and the overwhelming support they’ve gotten. But Neeka, who lived through the Orange Revolution herself, notes that the first night of protests weren’t exactly anything to gawk at either and people had the same sinking feeling in their stomachs. And yet the next morning, just as Milinkevich called people out now for tomorrow, people showed up and began their revolution. Now we must wait and see if the people of Belarus can reignite the fire in them come morning, and if the military won’t kill them. That the election commission plans on giving Lukashenko some 90% of the vote, when independent exit polls put him at 47% — thus forcing a runoff with Milinkevich — should be enough to get people out on the streets. At least I hope so.

The latest updates for Monday’s protest is here.

More photos being added to my directory here. Yahoo has a ton of photos as well. Andrei Khrapavistski has a ton of photos right from the square.

Other bloggers blogging about Belarus today: br23, Tobias Ljungvall, Blogging Belarus, Andrei Khrpavistski, Jim Hoft, Dean’s World.