The head of the US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, Jim Risch, called on the Belarusian President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko to resign if the election results in the country are not confirmed, RIA Novosti reports.
According to him, Lukashenka should be allowed to conduct a “true tally of the results” of the vote and “leave if, as reported, he was not democratically re-elected.”
“The peaceful transfer of power is vital for the future of Belarus and its sovereignty,” the senator said.
Risch also called on the Belarusian leader to stop pressure on journalists and protesters, as well as restore Internet access.
Earlier, protesters in Belarus were supported by Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. He also called on Lukashenka to respect the rights of civilians and to renounce further violence against them.
On August 9, presidential elections were held in the republic. According to the CEC, the incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko won 80.08% of the vote, and Svetlana Tikhanovskaya – 10.09%.
Tikhanovskaya’s headquarters refused to recognize the official data of the country’s Central Election Commission, noting that headquarters data from polling stations in all regions of the republic show her results in 70-80%, while Tikhanovskaya herself believes that she won the elections.
After the announcement of the preliminary results, unauthorized protest actions began in Minsk and other cities of Belarus. The protesters erected barricades from garbage cans. Police fired tear gas, water cannons and stun grenades against them, and pushed protesters out of the city center.
The shares continued on the evening of August 10 and Tuesday night. During the clashes in the area of Pushkin Square, a person died. The security forces managed to disperse the protesters, and by the middle of the night the protests had stopped.