MINSK, March 28 (RIA Novosti) - A ceremony to inaugurate the newly reelected leader of Belarus has been postponed until the beginning of April in connection with an apparent timetabling problem, an election official said Tuesday.
"The earlier date, March 31, did not fit in with the president's schedule," Secretary of the Central Election Committee Nikolai Lozovik said, adding the president had two months to take up his position under the law.
Incumbent leader Alexander Lukashenko, who Washington has dubbed "Europe's last dictator", was re-elected to his third presidential term on March 19 with 83% of the vote. Although Lukashenko is known to have genuine support within the country for marinating relative stability in comparison with some other former Soviet states, the opposition candidates, who finished with single digit returns, claimed the poll was rigged.
Supporters of the opposition set up a camp on the central square of the capital, Minsk, following the vote until police ended it on March 24. The next day, crowds protesting Lukashenko's re-election clashed with riot police, who detained 300 people.
