Vote challenger makes ‘difficult decision’ to leave Belarus

MINSK: The main challenger in Belarus’s disputed presidential election said on Tuesday she made a "difficult decision" to leave the country, after a second night of street clashes between police and opposition supporters left a protester dead.

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who has claimed victory over authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in Sunday’s vote, said she had left out of concern for her children, with Lithuania saying she was "safe" in the neighbouring country.

"I have made a very difficult decision," a distressed-looking Tikhanovskaya said in a short video address. "Children are the most important thing we have in life," said the 37-year-old, whose five-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son had earlier been taken out of the country for their safety.

"I know that many will understand me, many will judge me, and many will begin to hate me," Tikhanovskaya said. "But God forbid anyone face the choice I had." The political novice, who has energised Belarus’s embattled opposition, had gone incommunicado on Monday night.

EU and Nato member Lithuania, which like Belarus was once part of the Soviet Union, has a history of granting refuge to Belarusian and Russian opposition figures. Her surfacing in Lithuania came after thousands took to the streets of the capital Minsk for a second night on Monday, after authorities said longtime ruler Lukashenko had secured a sixth term with 80 percent of the vote.

Tikhanovskaya, a political neophyte, came second with 10 percent and protesters are backing her claim to have won the election. For the second night in a row, police used rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas to disperse demonstrations, though protesters fought back with stones and fireworks and built makeshift barricades, AFP reporters, protesters and witnesses said.