 After the December completion of the 2010 presidential election, Lukashenko was elected to a fourth straight term with nearly 80 % of the vote in elections. The runner-up opposition leader Andrei Sannikov received less than 3 % of the vote; independent observers criticized the election as fraudulent. When opposition protesters took to the streets in Minsk, many people, including most rival presidential candidates, were beaten and arrested by the state militia. Many of the candidates, including Sannikov, were sentenced to prison or house arrest for terms typically over four years. Six months later amid an unprecedented economic crisis, activists utilized social networking to initiate a fresh round of protests characterized by wordless hand-clapping.
