MINSK, Aug 19, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana
Tikhanovskaya on Wednesday urged EU leaders to reject the results of the
presidential election which sparked massive protests and saw strongman leader
Alexander Lukashenko claim a sixth term.
“I call on you not to recognise these fraudulent elections,” Tikhanovskaya
said in a video addressed to the European Council, adding that “Lukashenko
has lost all legitimacy in the eyes of our nation and the world.”
Belarus’s authoritarian leader, who has controlled the isolated ex-Soviet
country for 26 years, claimed victory in the August 9 election that sparked
historic protests and a brutal police crackdown condemned by Western
countries.
Tikhanovskaya’s appeal came ahead of an emergency video conference of
European Union leaders on Wednesday to discuss the election fallout in
Belarus.
EU leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron and German
Chancellor Angela Merkel this week urged Belarus’s powerful ally Russia to
lobby for dialogue in Minsk.
“The August 9 elections were neither fair, nor transparent. The results
were falsified,” the opposition leader said in the video address.
Tikhanovskaya, 37, has said she will organise new elections if Lukashenko
steps down and her allies have formed a Coordination Council to ensure a
transfer of power. The council is due to convene later on Wednesday.
Lukashenko, 65, has dismissed calls to resign or hold a new vote and has
claimed the opposition is attempting to “seize power”.
Tikhanovskaya, a political novice who fled to neighbouring Lithuania after
claiming victory in the ballot, said Wednesday that the Coordination Council
would “lead the process of peaceful transition of power via dialogue.
“It will immediately call for a new fair and democratic presidential
election with international supervision”.