Authorities Want To Remove Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya From Elections

Lukashenka wants to leave only spoilers as the election campaign participants.

The editorial board of Charter97.org has learned that the Belarusian authorities are planning to remove presidential candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya from the elections, as she is the only alternative candidate and is gaining popularity among Belarusians.

"We have received information that it is planned to leave only spoilers as participants of the election campaign. The role of the main pseudo-democratic candidate will be played by well-known provocateur Andrei Dzmitryjeu, who categorically opposes the protest activities because of election fraud. I trust the source of this information.

Journalists of some independent Belarusian media have also told me that there has been increased pressure on the media editorial office in Belarus by special services with the demand to "promote Dzmitryjeu as an alternative democratic candidate," - Natallia Radzina, editor-in-chief of Charter97.org, says.

We remind that head of the registered movement "Tell the Truth" Andrei Dzmitryjeu had not collected signatures in his support at these "elections", but was registered as a candidate by CEC head Lidziya Yarmoshyna. In 2015, he was head of headquarters of spoiler candidate Tatsiana Karatkevich, who also, according to representatives of democratic forces, had not collected signatures for her nomination, but was registered as a presidential candidate. And after the 2010 presidential elections, Dzmitryjeu made a statement on the Belarusian TV that the police were not to blame for beating up demonstrators and presidential candidates at the protest rallies against the rigged voting results.