MINSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th September, 2020) Belarusian opposition figure and ex-presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said on Friday that the Coordination Council, created at her initiative, might elect a new presidium, after almost all its members were detained or fled the country in the wake of a crackdown on opposition.
The council was created in Belarus in the wake of the August 9 presidential election to oversee the transfer of power as the opposition rejected the reelection of incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko and said it was Tikhanovskaya who won the vote. To date, all members of the Coordination Council's presidium have been detained, arrested or are abroad, except for Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich, a recipient of the Nobel prize in Literature.
"Yes, few people have remained at large from the presidium, but no one is applying for resignation from the membership at the Coordination Council. We are discussing how we will further work. Perhaps a new presidium will be elected," Tikhanovskaya said in an interview with the Belarusian tut.by news portal.
At the same time, the opposition leader, who has fled to Lithuania, added that she was very homesick.
"I hope that very soon I and all the people who had to leave [Belarus] will have such an opportunity [to come back]," Tikhanovskaya noted.
The Belarusian chief prosecutor's office has opened a criminal probe into the Coordination Council over national security concerns. The council says its goals and methods of work comply with the country's constitution.
