Thousands of protesters in Belarus on Thursday formed human chains and marched peacefully demonstrating over re-election of President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, and an ensuing brutal police crackdown on protesters.

Men and women, many wearing white and holding flowers, took to the streets of the capital Minsk to protest against police brutality during four nights of unrest since Sunday’s exit poll which showed  Lukashenko receiving 80% of the votes.

Lukashenko’s opponents accuse him of rigging the election to defeat his main rival, popular opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who has left the ex-Soviet country for neighbouring Lithuania.

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Protesters have been taking to the streets across the country since Sunday to contest the vote results. To control the countrywide demonstrations and disperse the protesters, Belarus police used stun grenades, rubber bullets, tear gas, water cannon and, in at least one case, live fire. 

At least two people have died and hundreds have been wounded in the violence, whereas, nearly 7,000 have been arrested.

On Thursday, some demonstrators held placards reading “Change!” and “No violence” and sported white bracelets that have become a symbol of the opposition movement.

“We are against violence, against explosions on our streets, we are in favour of freeing all the detained,” Nastya, a 26-year-old protester, told AFP.

“We support honest elections, and an honest recount, it’s necessary for votes to be recounted honestly.”

Maria, a 35-year-old sales assistant, said,”We want people to be able to protest peacefully, after all they didn’t want anything bad, just a fair count of the votes.”

The interior ministry said 700 more people had been arrested for taking part in “illegal protests” on Wednesday, bringing the total number detained since Sunday to more than 6,700.