(CN) — The main opposition candidate in Belarus' presidential election left the country Tuesday as demonstrators protested for a third night against the results of what was widely viewed as a rigged election.
Months of protests, dubbed the "Slipper Revolution," against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko have exploded after the Belarusian state declared a landslide victory on Sunday for Lukashenko, who many call Europe's last authoritarian strongman.
Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya went into hiding the night before the election after two staff members were arrested. After the official results gave her only about 7% of the vote, and she publicly disputed them, she fled to Lithuania. In a video Tuesday, she said that it was her choice to leave Belarus for the sake of her children.
“It was a very hard decision to make,” Tsikhanouskaya said, according to the Associated Press. “I know that many of you will understand me, many others will condemn me and some will even hate me. But God forbid you ever face the choice that I faced.”
In another video released shortly after the first by state media, in which she appeared to be reading from a prepared statement, Tsikhanouskaya urged her supporters to stop protesting.
“The people of Belarus have made their choice," she said.
Her campaign said her actions were made under duress and put out a statement urging authorities to work with protesters toward a "peaceful transition of power."
In the run-up to the election, opposition figures were jailed or fled Belarus for fear of arrest. On Sunday, when election results were announced giving Lukashenko about 80% of the vote, the Belarusian state was accused of fixing the vote count. Europe's election monitoring body, the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe, called into question the results.
Lukashenko has won every election since 1994 in landslides, making him Europe's longest serving head of state. Under his regime, he has consolidated power and made Belarus a police state and dictatorship, his critics contend.
Since Sunday, more than 3,000 people have been detained after two nights of protests in the capital Minsk and other cities and towns. The demonstrations have turned violent with police, soldiers and interior ministry agents using stun grenades, rubber bullets, water cannons and tear gas to carry out Lukashenko's order to squash the opposition. At least two demonstrators reportedly have died in the protests which have seen tens of thousands of people pour onto the streets.
Rik Daems, the president of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, a legal body connected to the European Court of Human Rights, said the election was "far from being free and fair."
He denounced the arrests of journalists, activists, protesters and candidates before the election and urged Belarus to adopt democratic principles. Belarus is not a member of the Council of Europe because of its lack of democratic progress.
Tensions in Belarus have been rising for months as opposition forces became emboldened and outrage against Lukashenko grew. Large protests broke out across the country with demonstrators chanting, "Stop the cockroach!", a reference to a poem called "The Monster Cockroach" by Kornei Chukovsky, a popular Russian children's writer. In the poem, a cockroach with a mustache becomes the ruler over other animals through intimidation. Lukashenko has a mustache. During the protests, demonstrators have called for killing the cockroach with a slipper, a metaphorical reference to getting rid of Lukashenko.
The protests were led by a popular blogger and businessman turned politician named Syarhei Tsikhanouski. Tsikhanouski was especially dangerous to Lukashenko because he was making inroads among the president's core electorate, residents of Belarus’ impoverished regions, according to Joerg Forbrig, the director for Central and Eastern Europe at the German Marshall Fund, a think tank.
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