Ex-Candidate Tsepkalo Says Will Return To Belarus If Dual Power Emerges

Ex-Candidate Tsepkalo Says Will Return to Belarus If Dual Power Emerges

Former Belarusian presidential candidate Valery Tsepkalo told Sputnik on Tuesday that he would return to his country if the opposition manages to establish a dual power regime, otherwise, he faces a lengthy prison term

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th August, 2020) Former Belarusian presidential candidate Valery Tsepkalo told Sputnik on Tuesday that he would return to his country if the opposition manages to establish a dual power regime, otherwise, he faces a lengthy prison term.

"I will definitely come back. I will come back if a state of dual power emerges. Otherwise, I am facing eight to 15 years, per the statement by [Belarusian Central Election Commission Chairwoman Lidia] Ermoshina," Tsepkalo said.

The former presidential hopeful, who fled for fear of persecution and is currently in Kiev, has noted that his wife, Veronica, left Minsk for Russia, on his insistence.

"She came [to Russia] from Belarus during the night. I told her to leave Minsk, because people are being grabbed for real, so to speak. All media people are prime targets for a possible arrest. So I told Veronica to leave so that they [the authorities] could not put pressure on me," Tsepkalo explained.

He remains assured that the Belarusian authorities will not recount the votes of the Sunday presidential election.

"You think they will go for it? Of course not. They will not go for it to register it on paper. The scope of the fraud is not 10 percent, not 20 percent, the fraud is 70 percent," Tsepkalo said.

Belarus held its presidential election on Sunday with incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko winning 80.08 percent of the vote. The runner-up, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, won 10.9 percent. The results have sparked mass protests in the country, resulting in 3,000 arrests.