A look at Belarus' opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya

A look at Belarus' opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya

Belarusian opposition presidential candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who has led the biggest challenge to Alexander Lukashenko's 26-year rule, has become a figurehead of the pro-democracy movement in the eastern European country.

Lauren Anthony takes a look at her political background.

Presidential candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has become a figurehead of the pro-democracy movement in Belarus.

The opposition leader has led the biggest and fiercest challenge to Alexander Lukashenko's 26-year rule.

Here's a look at her background.

A political novice, Tsikhanouskaya emerged as the consensus opposition candidate after better-known figures were barred from standing, including her jailed anti-government activist husband - whose place she took in the election after he was arrested.

She has called herself a symbol for change for Belarus - and said her role is to deliver new and fair elections.

DATE: JULY, 2020 "The power and the threat of the Belarus authorities are not the candidates, it is the people of Belarus, who do not want to live in misery anymore, they want to live in a free country, where they do not grab people in the street, put them into a police van and then send them to jail for an invented reason." The country is navigating one of the biggest political crises in its post-Soviet history, after Tsikhanouskaya rejected official election results from an August 9 vote, which handed Lukashenko a landslide victory.

Protests gripped the country after the polls closed - and have continued ever since.

"People who went out to defend their vote in the streets of their cities all across Belarus were brutally beaten, imprisoned and tortured by the regime desperately clinging on to power." Opponents said the election was rigged - and demanded talks on a peaceful transfer of power.

Led by Tsikhanouskaya, they established a body - the Coordination Council - with the goal of doing just that.

Belarus launched a criminal case accusing it of an illegal attempt to seize power.

"We will not relent.

We demand to respect our basic rights.

We demand all political prisoners freed.

We demand to stop the violence and intimidation by the authorities." Tsikhanouskaya fled to neighboring Lithuania with her two children after the August 9 vote - and said she hopes to return home when she feels safe.

The presidential candidate claims she would not run again if a new election were held - but expected her husband might.

She said she could see herself working in human rights organizations.

Belarus jailed two opposition leaders for 10 days on Tuesday (August 25) as part of a government crackdown on the few figures still at large, while schoolteachers led a new protest of thousands against President Lukashenko.

Most major opposition figures are currently either in jail or, like Tsikhanouskaya, in exile.