LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th September, 2020) UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's inauguration in Minsk was further damaging his reputation.
"Lukashenko's secret inauguration in Minsk today brings him further into disrepute," Raab wrote on Twitter.
"His rigged election was a fraud on the Belarusian people," he claimed.
Presidential elections were held in Belarus on August 9, which, according to the Central Election Commission (CEC), were won by Lukashenko, who gained 80.1 percent of the vote. The Belarusian opposition, however, claimed that ex-Belarusian presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, not Lukashenko, had won. In line with the law, the inauguration of the president-elect must take place within two months from the date of the election.
On Wednesday, Belarusian state news agency Belta unexpectedly, without a preliminary announcement, reported that Lukashenko had assumed the office of president of Belarus, with the inauguration ceremony held at the Palace of Independence.
