With male challengers to Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko either barred from running or in prison, two of their wives and a female campaign team member of another have united to try to beat him in the Aug. 9 election
MINSK - Dismissed by the incumbent as too fragile to run Belarus because of their gender, three women have joined forces to try to unseat President Alexander Lukashenko, a man the United States once called Europe’s last dictator.
He faces his biggest challenge in years due to frustration over his hands-off handling of the coronavirus pandemic and grievances over the economy and human rights. Tikhanouskaya launched her candidacy after her husband, a popular blogger who campaigned against Lukashenko, was arrested in May on what she says were trumped up charges.
The EU delegation to non-EU member Belarus said in July that excluding two of Lukashenko’s election rivals “undermines the overall integrity and democratic nature of the elections”, while Europe’s election watchdog expressed concern about “key aspects of the electoral process”. The people of Belarus “do not want to live in misery anymore, they want to live in a free country where they do not grab people in the street, put them into a police van and then send them to jail for an invented reason”, she said.
An image of the three women posing for the camera – Tikhanouskaya clenching her fist, Kolesnikova making a heart sign, and Tsepkalo making a ‘V’ for victory sign, has quickly spread.
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