Tikhanovskaya canceled an election rally in Minsk after the arrest of the head of headquarters

Opposition candidate for the presidency of Belarus Svetlana Tikhanovskaya canceled an election rally in Minsk on the evening of August 6. Prior to this, the security forces detained the head of her headquarters for an "explanatory conversation."

Tikhanovskaya's headquarters announced that the authorities were simply not allowed to hold a pre-election rally in her support - the site chosen by the candidate for holding a mass rally turned out to be occupied for the holiday of the railway troops. “Svyatlana Tikhanovskaya received a notification about the holiday of the railway troops in the Friendship of Peoples Park in the e-mail. We are not allowed to hold rallies at any site in Minsk, just like in Slutsk and Salihorsk. These are absolutely illegal actions of the authorities, we have appealed this decision to the Prosecutor General's Office, the Central Election Commission and the Minsk City Executive Committee, but we will not provoke people (to go to an unauthorized rally. - The Bell),” the candidate’s press secretary Anna Krasulina said in a statement.

The cancellation of the rally did not come as a surprise - immediately after the announcement of Tikhanovskaya on August 1, the authorities announced that they would use the Friendship of Peoples Park for a city event, and therefore its use as a platform for the action was impossible. Despite this, on the morning of August 6, Tikhanovskaya's team tried to set up a stage in the park, but the traffic police blocked the entrance to the headquarters car with the equipment.

Around the same time, the head of Tikhanovskaya's headquarters, Maria Moroz, was detained and soon released by law enforcement agencies. As Moroz explained, “in this way the authorities conduct an explanatory conversation” about the organization of mass pre-election events. “It was not only about August 6, but about all events in general,” Moroz said.

• The presidential elections in Belarus will be held on August 9. Five candidates are registered for them, including the incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko, who is running for his sixth term. Tikhanovskaya is the only real opposition candidate.

• Today Lukashenka announced that he would not allow "Maidan". “Here, some continue to call people to the Maidan on the 9th and 10th. God forbid, we will kindle a fire in the center of Minsk and scatter firebrands all over Minsk. We cannot and will not allow this,” he said.