Opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya
Photo:Sergei Grits / dpa
The Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tichanowskaja does not want to run as a candidate against the incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko in a new election. "I'm not planning to go into the race myself," Tichanovskaya told the Tass agency. Her husband is not interested either.
The former English teacher ran for her husband Sergei Tichanowskij after the anti-government blogger was arrested in May. At the beginning of the week Tichanovskaya had signaled her readiness to take power.
The opposition leader has been in Lithuania since August 11th. There she gave her first press conference after fleeing into exile in Vilnius on Friday.
Lukashenko, whom she never names, tries to steal their land from the Belarusians. "In order to end the arbitrariness, we have to unite," said Tichanovskaya. The opposition's goals are the end of violence against those who think differently, the release of all political prisoners and fair and free new elections for the presidency.
The Belarusian opposition does not recognize the victory of President Alexander Lukashenko after the election, which was marked by allegations of manipulation and violence. According to a report by the RIA news agency, Lukashenko is ready to repeat the presidential election as soon as a new constitution has been adopted.
Lukashenko had declared himself the winner in the presidential election in Belarus on August 9, with an alleged 80 percent share of the vote. The opposition, however, speaks of electoral fraud and sees Tichanovskaya as the new president.
Icon: The mirrorkfr / Reuters