Huge crowds rally for Belarus opposition leader in run-up to presidential election

Opposition candidate, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, backed by leaders disqualified from poll

Tens of thousands of supporters of a Belarusian opposition candidate crowded into a Minsk square on Thursday evening before upcoming elections for what may have been the largest political rally in the country's modern history.

More than 63,000 people attended the event, according to the human rights organisation Viasna, which has sent monitors to the opposition protests. That number would mark it as the largest in Belarus since 1991", according to Charter97, a prominent opposition website.