Opposition Candidate in Belarus Election Flees to Lithuania

Tsikhanouskaya, a 37-year-old former English teacher without any prior political experience, entered the race after her husband, an opposition blogger who had hoped to run for president, was arrested in May.

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She has managed to unite fractured opposition groups and draw tens of thousands to her campaign rallies — the largest opposition demonstrations in Belarus since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

“We don’t agree with (the election results), we have absolutely opposite information,” Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told the AP on Monday.

“We have official protocols from many poll stations, where the number of votes in my favor are many more times than for another candidate,” she continued.

Economic damage caused by the coronavirus and Lukashenko’s swaggering response to the pandemic, which he airily dismissed as “psychosis”, has fueled broad anger, helping swell the opposition ranks.

The post-election protest, in which young demonstrators — many of them teenagers — confronted police, marked a previously unseen level of violence.

Rumors that Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya had left the country began circulating among the protesters as they confronted police overnight, but the news didn't discourage them from continuing their resistance.

“She had a clear choice: to be in a Belarusian jail or to remain free in Lithuania,” said 21-year-old protester Kirill Kulevich.

“Tsikhanouskaya has called herself a symbol of change, but they are forcing us to continue living as before,” commented Kirill.

Another protester, 20-year-old Anna Vitushko, said that protests will continue.

“People are protesting against the crude falsifications, and her departure doesn’t mean anything," Vitushko said.

“If Lukashenko won 80 percent, why does he need riot police, rubber bullets and water cannons? They can cheat a few percent of the population, but they can't cheat the entire country.”

Scores were detained as police relentlessly dispersed scattered groups of protesters in Minsk overnight.

The police crackdown on protesters drew harsh criticism from the European Union and the United States and will likely complicate Lukashenko’s efforts to mend ties with the West amid tensions with his main ally and sponsor, Russia.