Call for Lukashenko to be banned from election rerun

Opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich said today that Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko must be excluded from a rerun of presidential elections that is being demanded by the opposition.

Opponents already have called for the allegedly fraudulent weekend elections that gave Lukashenko a third term in office to be repeated.

“We are demanding a repeat election without the participation of Lukashenko. For us, this is very important. He does not have the constitutional right” to run again, Milinkevich said.

He was referring to the 2004 referendum that approved changing the constitution to end term limits for the president.

Official results said the referendum passed handily, but the opposition says the vote was manipulated.