OSCE Says Belarus Elections Flawed

The opposition has been shut out of Belarus' parliament in elections that a major international observation organization says were significantly flawed.

The observer mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe says the election fell short of international democratic standards, in particular citing a flawed vote count.

The OSCE mission said in a statement Monday «the count was assessed as bad or very bad in 48 percent of polling stations visited.

The Belarusian elections commission announced a few hours earlier that no opposition candidates had won any of the 100 seats in parliament. All seats went to supporters of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.