The Belarusian opposition's coordination council will form a seven-member Presidium and working groups during the board's first meeting, which began in Minsk on Wednesday, a Sputnik correspondent reported
MINSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th August, 2020) The Belarusian opposition's coordination council will form a seven-member Presidium and working groups during the board's first meeting, which began in Minsk on Wednesday, a Sputnik correspondent reported.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who ran for the Belarusian presidency against incumbent Alexander Lukashenko, and who is now in Lithuania, initiated the creation of the coordination council last week to ensure the transfer of power, stressing that she is ready for dialogue. Tikhanovskaya's ally, Olga Kovalkova, has said that the body would consist of 70 people. Lukashenko has, in turn, said that the Belarusian opposition created the council to "lull" the security forces and seize power.
Wednesday's session is attended by Tikhanovskaya's allies, Maria Kolesnikova, a member of barred candidate Viktor Babariko's campaign team, and the former culture minister, Pavel Latushka.
"The Presidium of seven people and working groups will be formed today," Olga Kovalkova, Tikhanovskaya's ally, told Sputnik.
The opposition leader herself will not be included in the council, "since she is the elected president, while the coordination council is a body appointed by her for the transfer of power and negotiations with all strata of society," Kovalkova added.
She previously told Sputnik that 55 out of 70 members of the coordination council had already been elected. According to Kovalkova, she and lawyer Maksim Znak are choosing candidates from hundreds of applicants.
Belarus plunged into protests after the August 9 presidential election results showed Lukashenko win over 80 percent of the vote to claim a sixth term as president. The opposition, coalesced around unlikely contender Tikhanovskaya, disputed the result and has been taking to the streets daily since.
Early into the rallies, the security forces utilized tear gas, water cannons, stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse the protesters, but the heavy use of force has since subsided.
According to official data, more than 6,700 people were detained in the early days of the unrest. Hundreds of others have been injured during the riots, including more than 150 law enforcement officers, and three protesters have died.
