Opposition boycotts Belarus vote

Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko gets some help from his son while casting a ballot in national elections.

The polls, held Sunday, will decide the makeup of the country's 110-member parliament.

But opposition parties are boycotting the ballot, calling it a sham designed to mask Lukashenko's iron grip on power.

They cheekily suggested voters do something else with their day, like pick mushrooms.

The combative president, who has run Belarus since 1994, called his opponents "cowards" and said they had nothing to offer the people.

Belarus, a small, former Soviet bloc country, has not had free and fair elections in over 15 years, say Western monitors.