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03:13

Belarus protests against President Lukashenko continue with demands for new elections

Belarus protests against President Lukashenko continue with demands for new elections

Lukashenko opponent ‘ready to lead’ Belarus after massive rally tests strongman’s grip on power

  • Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is facing an unprecedented challenge to his leadership
  • Protests on Sunday were some of the largest in the country since the break-up of the Soviet Union
Belarus
Agencies

Belarusian opposition politician Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said on Monday she was ready to lead Belarus and called for the creation of a legal mechanism to ensure that a new fair presidential election could be held.

Speaking in a video address from Lithuania, she also urged security and law enforcement officers to switch sides from President Alexander Lukashenko’s government, saying their past behaviour would be forgiven if they did so now.

Her video was released a day after Belarusians chanting “Step down!” filled the centre of the capital Minsk in the biggest protest so far against what they said was the fraudulent re-election a week ago of longtime president Lukashenko.

“I am ready to take responsibility and act as a national leader during this period,” Tsikhanouskaya said, saying it was essential to make the most of the momentum generated by a week of protests.

The former English teacher has become one of the leading opposition figures against Lukashenko, who is struggling to contain a wave of mass protests and strikes that pose the biggest challenge to his 26-year rule of the country.

Opposition politician Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. Photo: Reuters

She fled abroad last week, saying she had done so for the safety of her children. She had called for a weekend of protests following the disputed election, which gave Lukashenko 80 per cent of the vote.

Other major towns and cities in the ex-Soviet country of 9 million also saw large rallies on Sunday, local media reported.

More and more Belarusians have taken to the streets over the last week to condemn Lukashenko’s disputed victory and a subsequent violent crackdown by riot police and abuse of detainees.

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Unusually, tightly controlled state television news aired a short item on the “alternative protest” in Minsk, while not showing anti-Lukashenko slogans.

The 65-year-old strongman held a rare campaign-style rally on Independence Square before the opposition protest.

He told flag-waving supporters: “I called you here not to defend me … but for the first time in a quarter-century, to defend your country and its independence.”

Standing at a podium in a short-sleeved shirt, Lukashenko insisted on the legitimacy of the presidential poll.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko addresses his supporters during a rally in Minsk. Photo: EPA

“The elections were valid. There could not be more than 80 per cent of votes falsified,” he said in a sometimes emotional speech.

“We won’t give away the country!” he vowed, while his teenage son Nikolai stood watching nearby.

With pressure growing from the street and abroad after the European Union said it would impose new sanctions, Lukashenko has reached out to Russia.

Moscow said Sunday it was ready to provide military help if needed.

The Kremlin said that in a call with Lukashenko, President Vladimir Putin had expressed Russia’s “readiness to provide the needed assistance” including “if necessary” through the CSTO military alliance between six ex-Soviet states.

RT Kremlin-funded television reported that this was in the case of “outside military threats”.

Belarus women form human chains in protest at violence after vote

Tens of thousands have taken to the streets over the last week to denounce the election result and support Tikhanovskaya, a 37-year-old political novice who ran after other potential candidates including her husband were jailed.

A violent police crackdown on protesters saw more than 6,700 people arrested, hundreds wounded and two people dead.

Thousands of opposition supporters demonstrated in Minsk on Saturday at the spot where a 34-year-old protester died during unrest last Monday.

Officials said the man, Alexander Taraisky, died when an explosive device he was holding blew up in his hand.

Belarusian opposition supporters rally in Minsk, Belarus on Sunday. Photo: AP

Following the release of video footage contradicting this, Interior Minister Yury Karayev told Tut.by on Sunday: “Maybe they shot him with non-lethal weapons”, saying only rubber bullets were used.

The opposition called for a general strike from Monday after hundreds of workers at state-run factories downed tools on Friday in a first sign that Lukashenko’s traditional support base was turning against him.

European governments have condemned the election and police crackdown, and EU ministers on Friday agreed to draw up a list of targets in Belarus for a new round of sanctions.

Tikhanovskaya has announced the creation of a Coordination Council to ensure a transfer of power, asking foreign governments to “help us in organising a dialogue with Belarusian authorities”.

She demanded the authorities release all detainees, remove security forces from the streets and open criminal cases against those who ordered the crackdown.

She has said she would organise new elections if Lukashenko steps down.

Agence France-Presse and Reuters

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Thousands march as Lukashenko vows to stay on
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