BELARUSIAN President Alexander Lukashenko assumed his sixth term of office today during an unannounced inauguration ceremony following weeks of mass protests against his re-election. 

The swearing-in ceremony took place in the capital Minsk with several hundred government officials, legislators and media representatives in attendance. 

Mr Lukashenko said: “The day of assuming the post of the president is the day of our victory, convincing and fateful.

“We were not just electing the president of the country, we were defending our values, our peaceful life, sovereignty and independence.”

Opposition leaders and a number of foreign governments claimed that the absence of public involvement in the ceremony underlined that the 66-year-old lacked a valid mandate.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffan Seibert said that the apparent secrecy around the event was “very telling.”

In August, Mr Lukashenko won 80 per cent of votes, but opposition activists claim that the election was rigged.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who received 10 per cent of the votes and who is in exile in Lithuania, called the inauguration an attempt by Mr Lukashenko to “declare himself legitimate,” and said that “the people haven’t handed him a new mandate.”

“I, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, am the only leader that has been elected by the Belarusian people,” she said in a video statement. 

“And our goal right now is to build the new Belarus together.”

Protests demanding that Mr Lukashenko step down have rocked the country daily since the election, with the largest rallies in Minsk attracting up to 200,000 of the country’s 9.5 million people.

Police have used truncheons and rubber bullets to disperse crowds. Several protesters are reported to have died, and more than 7,000 said to have been detained.

Human-rights group Viasna said that several protesters were detained near the Palace of Independence, where the ceremony took place, holding banners saying “The king has no clothes” and “The victory (will belong to) the people.”