Tsikhanouskaya to Remain ‘National Leader’ Until Free Elections Can Be Held in Belarus

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the leader of Belarus’s democratic opposition in exile, will remain the “National Leader” of Belarus until the country can hold free elections, the participants of the ‘New Belarus’ congress held in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius decided.

During the conference which lasted throughout the weekend, representatives of Belarus’s political opposition operating in exile also agreed upon and signed a protocol defining how the various democratic organizations and bodies are to cooperate.

According to the document, Tsikhanouskaya, whom the democratic opposition recognizes as the actual winner of the fraudulent 2020 Belarusian presidential elections, has the status of the “National Leader” of Belarus, which post she will hold until free elections can be organized in the country unless she resigns herself before that.

The protocol was signed by Tiskhanouskaya’s Office, the United Transitional Cabinet (headed by Tsikhanouskaya) and the Coordination Council, the latter two of which serve as the oppositions in-exile executive and quasi-parliament. The protocol is available in English on Tsikhanouskaya’s website.

The conference also adopted a document entitled ‘Platform 2025,’ which calls for, among others, aiming to deprive Lukashenko’s regime of legitimacy, non-recognition of results of the upcoming 2025 elections by both the Belarusian people as well as the international community, and focusing of the democratic forces’ efforts on working together.2020 electionsSviatlana Tsikhanouskaya ran against Aleksandr Lukashenko in the elections held on August 9, 2020. According to official results published by the regime, she only received 10.1% of the vote to Lukashenko’s 80.1%.

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Kolesnikova was part of a trio of women who led mass protests in 2020 against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994.

Many Belarusians, however, believe that Tsikhanouskaya was the actual winner of the elections.

According to Holas (Voice) initiative, which encouraged Belarusians to self-report how they voted on the initiative’s website, she has received substantially more votes than according to the official count.

The announcement of the results sparked mass protests that Lukashenko’s regime brutally cracked down upon. Political repressions in Belarus continue to this day, and Tsikhanouskaya herself was forced to leave the country.