The 2020 Belarusian elections were steeped in scrutiny, quite like every Belarusian election since 1994, when current “President” Alexander Lukashenko took office. However, what sets the most recent election apart from the rest is one woman: an ex-school teacher named Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. Tikhanovskaya took on Lukashenko in the election and is widely recognised as the rightful leader of Belarus, despite the actions of the Belarusian government.
Tikhanovskaya’s political career began when her husband, Sergei, was arrested two days after announcing his desire to run for President of Belarus. Sergei was well known in the country for running a YouTube channel named “Country for Life”. He toured Belarus to interview people and understand the different problems citizens face in all parts of the country, actions which angered the President. The final straw for Lukashenko was when Sergei announced his plans to run in the 2020 presidential elections under a pro-democracy ideology, which worried Alexander Lukashenko, who was elected under democratic conditions. This led to Sergei’s arrest in May of 2020.
Tikhanovskaya then decided that she would carry on in her husband’s footsteps and registered with the Belarusian election commission to run as an opposition candidate to Lukashenko, saying that she “ran for love” in an attempt to free her husband from prison. She also ran under the same pro-democracy banner her husband championed and advocated for the release of the political prisoners of Belarus. Lukashenko responded by threatening to send her pre-teen children to a state-run orphanage.
The official results of the election, released by the Lukashenko-controlled Central Election Commission, gave Tikhanovskaya 10.12% of the vote while Lukashenko received 80.10%. These results were immediately contested by Tikhanovskaya, who filed a complaint to the Election Commission, to which Lukashenko responded by having her detained for 7 hours. She was then forced to leave the country by Belarusian security officials, as is customary for losing candidates worldwide.
Tikhanovskaya followed up by setting up the Coordination Council, aiming to facilitate a peaceful transition of power from Lukashenko to an interim government to set up genuine free elections. While having gained international recognition as the rightful leader of Belarus, the country is still under the leadership of Lukashenko, who isn’t recognised by the UN or the EU or (allegedly) even his own people!
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