Belarusian opposition braces for 'military operation' in 2025 election
Four years ago, presidential elections were held in Belarus, and, according to the official version, Alexander Lukashenko was awarded 80.1% of the votes. The leader has already announced that he will seek re-election in 2025. "This will be a military operation. There can only be one winner," assesses Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the leader of the Belarusian opposition, in an interview with Interia.
On 9 August 2020, presidential elections took place in Belarus. Lukashenko won 80.1% of the votes, and his opponent, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the candidate of the democratic opposition, secured only 10.1% of the votes.
These were the official election results. The scale of electoral fraud and the number of Belarusians who supported Tikhanovskaya are unknown. The country saw massive protests against the election falsification.
Meanwhile, Lukashenko, who has been ruling the country since 1994, has already announced that he will seek re-election in 2025. "I will do it. Tell them (the exiled opposition) that! The harder the situation becomes, the more actively they will act to shake our society," he announced a few months ago.
Tikhanovskaya: "This will be a military operation"
According to Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the winner of next year's presidential election in Belarus can already be identified.
This will be a military operation, not free elections. All the leaders who could participate were either in prison or in exile. Therefore, Lukashenko's regime will conduct a very sterile operation—no one will be able to participate in these elections, and there can only be one winner.
Tikhanovskaya emphasised this in an interview with Interia. When asked about the Belarusian opposition's plans in this situation, she stated that two scenarios are being considered.
She added that no decision has been made yet on which strategy to adopt.
A few days ago, Tikhanovskaya tweeted that people should not forget about Belarus because, in Ukrainian-Russian negotiations, it could become "a consolation prize for Russia."
