Belarussian authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko has faced angry calls for his resignation on Monday morning, as the candidate who ran against him in last week’s controversial election said he was ready to lead the nation.
“I am ready to take responsibility and act as the leader of the nation during this period so that the country rules and returns to normalcy,” opposition politician Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya said in a video address from Lithuania on Monday.
Tsikhanouskaya, 37, fled the country last week after longtime President Lukashenko declared victory with 80 percent of the vote.
But Lukashenko said Monday that there would be no other election “until you kill me.”
His remarks came in response to anger, laughter and singing of “dismissal!” of workers during his visit to the tractor factory MZKT.
“We have already held elections. Until you kill me, there will be no other elections,” he was quoted as saying by media outlet Tut.by as he spoke to workers outside the plant.
Since the election demonstrations have been held across the country with protesters claiming the results were fraudulent and demanding that Lukashenko, known as the last dictator of Europe, resign.
Sunday saw the biggest rally to date with rival groups holding protests.
Tsikhanouskaya, a former English teacher, has called for another round of elections to be held as soon as possible with a new legal framework to ensure it is honest, transparent and acceptable by the international community.
“The whole world looks at us with admiration and hope,” she said.
Belta’s official news agency quoted Lukashenko on Monday as saying he was ready to share power and change the constitution with a referendum, but that he was not prepared to do so under pressure from Protestants.
On Sunday, Belta reported that he told a rally in the capital Minsk that it was impossible for the votes to be fraudulent and giving in to demands for a re-election would be catastrophic.
“If we agree on this, we will disappear,” he said. “If we agree to the new election, we will turn the country around.”
Lukashenko has left the former Soviet nation of about 9.5 million for 26 years and the last election has secured him a sixth term in power.
Throughout Europe, rallies were held in support of the Belarusian Protestants.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was among the growing number of international political leaders to doubt the results of Monday’s election.
“The world has watched with horror the violence that the Belarusian authorities have used to quell the peaceful protests that followed these fraudulent presidential elections,” Raab said. “The UK does not accept the results.”
Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement saying the election “was not free and fair.”
He pointed to restrictions on access to voting for candidates, the prevention of local independent observers at polling stations and intimidation tactics for contaminating the results.
At least two protesters were killed and thousands were detained as protesters marched on Friday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck.
Widespread strikes were expected as an act of protest on Monday. On the state television news channel, Belteleradiocompany, music played after the broadcast of in empty studio after the anchors of the program did not come up.
Meanwhile, nearly 5,000 workers from the Minsk Tractor Works plant marched in the streets of Minsk on Monday, according to the Associated Press.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Caroline Radnofsky contributed.
