KYIV, Ukraine — President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus was sworn in Wednesday to his sixth time period in workplace at an inaugural ceremony that was not introduced upfront amid weeks of big protests of the authoritarian chief’s reelection, which the opposition says was rigged.
One opposition chief known as the secretive ceremony “a farce,” and a number of other European international locations reiterated that they don’t acknowledge the outcomes of the election and refuse to treat Lukashenko because the legit president.
The ceremony was held in entrance of a number of hundred dignitaries on the ornate Palace of Independence within the capital of Minsk, the state information company Belta stated. Police and different safety forces blocked off components of town and public transportation was suspended.
Lukashenko, 66, took the oath of workplace in Belarusian along with his proper hand on the structure, and the top of the Central Election Fee handed him the official ID card of the president of Belarus.
“The day of assuming the publish of the president is the day of our victory, convincing and fateful,” he stated. “We weren’t simply electing the president of the nation — we have been defending our values, our peaceable life, sovereignty and independence.”
The absence of public involvement within the inauguration solely proved that Lukashenko lacked a legitimate mandate to proceed main the nation, in accordance with his political opponents and European officers.
“Even after this ceremony in the present day, Mr. Lukashenko can not declare democratic legitimization, which might be the situation to acknowledge him because the legit president of Belarus,” stated Steffen Seibert, spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He added that the secrecy surrounding the swearing-in was “very telling.”
Lukashenko has run Belarus, a former Soviet nation of 9.5 million, with an iron fist for 26 years. Official outcomes of the nation’s Aug. 9 presidential election had him profitable 80% of the vote. His strongest opponent, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, bought 10%.
Tsikhanouskaya, who’s in exile in neighboring Lithuania after being compelled to depart Belarus, says the end result was invalid, as have the tens of 1000’s of her supporters who proceed to demand Lukashenko’s resignation throughout greater than six weeks of mass protests.
“The folks haven’t handed him a brand new mandate,” she stated, calling the inauguration was “a farce” and an try by Lukashenko to “proclaim himself legit.”
“I, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, am the one chief that has been elected by the Belarusian folks. And our purpose proper now’s to construct the brand new Belarus collectively,” she stated in a video from Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius.
© 2020 The Canadian Press
