Belarus has arrested scores of relatives of dissidents ahead of presidential vote, activists say

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarusian authorities have detained over 100 relatives of political prisoners in a new wave of arrests ahead of January’s election in which authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko is seeking a seventh term. The Viasna human rights center said that the raids began Thursday, targeting relatives and friends of political prisoners in various cities across the country. They marked an apparent effort to uproot any remaining sign of opposition to Lukashenko, who has been in power for more than 30 years. Belarus’ opposition-leader-in-exile Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya denounced the latest arrests as a “blow to solidarity among the Belarusians ahead of January’s pseudo-election.”