Belarus Opposition Leader Flees Country Amid Rising Tension from 'Fraud' Election Results

Belarus's main opposition leader says she feared for her children's safety and fled the country, saying it was a difficult decision to leave. The move comes after accusations that the election results that led to 80 percent of the votes going to the previous president were rigged.

For her children

In a video posted on YouTube, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya announced she left Belarus for her children's sake. Her departure was left unnoticed amid the protests that continued for a second night and resulted in one casualty.

According to BBC, another video was released and showed the presidential candidate during the time she was detained on Monday. The country's foreign minister said Tikhanovskaya was safe in Lithuania.

The election results showed a landslide win where President Alexander Lukashenko garnered more than 80 percent of the overall votes. This announcement, however, has drawn flak and accusations that the poll results were fraudulent.

Since the election was held, several violent encounters between protesters and police officers have rocked the nation for two nights. Amid the chaos, numerous reports of police brutality continue to strike fear in the citizens.

On Tuesday evening, reporters who were part of a filming crew stationed in Minsk said police officers who wore black uniforms with no insignia assaulted them. They alleged that two of the suspects continued to beat their cameraman and attempted to destroy their equipment. Despite the brutality, the reporters were not detained.

Since 1994, 65-year-old Lukashenko has ruled the former Soviet country and described his opponent's supporters as being mind-controlled sheep from abroad.

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Fraudulent election results

Candidate Tikhanovskaya, on the other hand, has surprised the opposition with her great challenge to the autocratic leader who has kept power for nearly two decades. After her husband was arrested and banned from making a vote, the 37-year-old decided to enter the presidential race.

After attempting to file a formal complaint about the election results, she was immediately detained for seven hours.

Speaking emotionally in a video, Tikhanovskaya said she resolved herself to taking the fight into the political scene but noted she might have bitten off more than she could chew, as reported by CNN.

The opposition leader said she made a tough decision which she made on her own. Saying she knows people will criticize and judge her for what she did, she stated she was forced to do it after facing the difficulties during the race.

Several hours after Tikhanovskaya posted the video of her announcement, a pro-government channel on Telegram, a messaging app, shared a recording of the opposition leader reading from a script and calling out to the citizens of Belarus, urging them to accept the election results and cease all protests.

On Tuesday, Olga Kovalkova, Tikhanoskaya's representative, told a news outlet that the opposition leader was left with no other choice. The official also revealed that several people from their team were still "held hostage."

Tikhanovskaya's campaign revealed that nine people from their side were arrested. Her husband had been detained since May, and she had decided to send her children internationally to protect them from the threats that they would be going into an orphanage.