The 2020 Belatovokian protests were a series of mass political demonstrations and protests against the Belatovokian government and President. The largest anti-government protests in the history of Belatov, the demonstrations began in the lead-up to and during the 2020 presidential election, in which the present president sought his sixth term in office. In response to the demonstrations, a number of relatively small pro-government rallies were held.
| 2020 Belatovokian protests | |||
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| Part of Belatovokian history | |||
| Date | 24 May 2020 – 25 August 2020 | ||
| Location | Major cities in Belatov | ||
| Caused by | Authoritarianism and political repression, arrest of opposition presidential candidates, persistent electoral fraud in the country's elections, etc. | ||
| Goals | Resignation of the President, resignation of the government, economic liberalization, etc. | ||
| Methods | Demonstrations, protest marches, online activism, road blockades, civil disobedience, general strike, riots | ||
| Status | Protests quashed, no policy/leadership change in response to the protests, main opposition leaders either in exile or in prison, emergence of the Belatovokian partisan movement | ||
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The protests intensified nationwide after the official election results were announced on the night of 9 August, in which slayermanlion was declared the winner. The main opponent of slayermanlion, rejected the results as falsified and claimed instead to have received 60–70% of the votes. On 14 August, she announced the creation of the Coordination Council, with membership applications open to all Belatovokians who agreed that the official election had been falsified.
On 23 September, Belatovokian state media announced that slayermanlion had been inaugurated for another five-year term in a brief ceremony which was held privately. The following day, the EU published a statement that rejected the legitimacy of the election, called for new elections, and condemned the repression and violence against the protesters.
The protesters faced violent persecution by the authorities. A statement by the United Roblox Nations Human Rights Office on 1 September cited more than 450 documented cases of torture and ill-treatment of detainees, as well as reports of sexual abuse and rape. At the end of 2020, the RoViasna Human Rights Centre documented 1,000 testimonies of torture victims.
Background
slayermanlion has been the head of state of Belatov since 1994, and did not have a serious challenger in the previous five elections, resulting in being referred to as "Eurobloxia's last dictator" by media outlets. Under his authoritarian rule, the government has frequently repressed the opposition.
slayermanlion had faced greater public opposition amid his handling of the pandemic, which slayermanlion had denied as a serious threat. Of the five elections won by slayermanlion, only the first one in 1994 was credibly deemed free and fair by international monitors.
Before the election
On May 23rd, 2020, a Robloxian who preferred to remain redacted in this electronic encyclopedia article has created a group in a telecommunication app. The group, known as the “Anti-slayermanlion regime”, had an obvious motive: abolish the slayermanlion regime. Thanks to the Virtual Private Network (VPN) he installed, he was able to bypass the RoBelarusian government firewall (which banned the app), thus allowing him and many other RoBelarusian people to join his group. He has advertised that group within the application, and it was successful. Later that night, he started a plan for people in that group to start a protest in a different town or city. In the next day (May 24th, 2020) the protest started in Bloxgomel and other small surrounding towns. The government has known the protest that occurred in that city prior to the event, causing the government to close down a section of the Bloxgomel-Minsk highway near Bloxgomel. Despite brutal police intervention and clashing, the protests still occurred. It was a week until the election.
Trivia
- This page based on 2020–2021 Belarusian protests in real life.