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Svetlana Tichanowskaya: The Belarusian opposition figure was forced into exile by ruler Lukashenko

Photo: dts news agency / IMAGO

Svetlana Tichanowskaja leads the opposition in Belarus from exile.

She has now called for a boycott of the country's parliamentary and local elections.

“I call on Belarusians and the international community to categorically reject this hoax,” she wrote on the X platform (formerly Twitter).

In addition to 110 members of parliament, around 12,000 representatives from local assemblies will be re-elected in Sunday's vote.

In her video speech, which was held in English, Tichanowskaja sharply criticized the vote.

The so-called election campaign does not correspond to democratic principles in any way.

Opposition parties and independent media were silenced.

Opposition candidates are not allowed to take part in the election.

"Many are being held as political prisoners." In addition, half a million voters have been driven out of the country and thus deprived of their right to vote, Tichanowskaya added.

She asked the international community not to recognize the vote as legitimate.

Lukashenko wants to run for president again in 2025

The elections in Belarus are considered unfree and manipulated.

According to official information, 41.71 percent of voters in Belarus had cast their votes before the polling stations opened in the morning.

Early voting - this time five days before the actual election day - has been a popular instrument of long-term ruler Alexander Lukashenko's power apparatus for years to achieve the desired results without any possibility of verification.

The opposition Internet platform "Serkalo" reported on Friday how students and employees in the public sector and in state-owned companies were forced to throw their ballot into the ballot box early and under the control of superiors.

According to observers, Lukashenko primarily wants to show that he is in full control after the protests three and a half years ago.

The Belarusian ruler was correspondingly self-confident.

When voting in the morning, the head of state announced that he would run again in the next presidential elections in 2025.

Lukashenko has ruled Belarus in an authoritarian manner since 1994.

The 2020 election, when he was declared the winner, was followed by months of demonstrations in the country.

The opposition declared Tikhanovskaya the actual election winner, but Lukashenko suppressed the protests in a bloody manner.

The EU did not recognize Lukashenko's election victory.

asc/dpa