Dmitrii Drozd: The time for changes has come!

Today the entire Belarusian people, even law enforcers and bureaucrats, realise that the time for changes has come. His time has passed. Belarus needs a legitimate president! We need new elections.

19 December was the point of no return for the regime. Lukashenko realized that he would lose the election. Other candidates conducted their campaigns beautifully and successfully. I myself worked at the headquarters of Andrei Sannikov and saw how, in a short time, he became a true national leader. If the elections had been fair, Lukashenko would not have had the slightest chance.

Lukashenko has taken revenge on Sannikov, having personally sent him to prison for five years. Lukashenko is taking revenge on Sannikov even now while he is in prison, because whilst there Sannikov remains a real threat to the regime. They are dragging him from prison to prison, creating provocations, trying to pressurise him morally; they are threatening to kill him. Statkevich is in no less dangerous a situation – a brave man, an officer, who presented this regime with an open and honest challenge. They are applying pressure on Dmitrii Dashkevich, because he is one of the most prominent figures in the youth movement. And youth is the most fearless part of the population. That means that it must be destroyed.

Today, our nation can not go back to the legal field – we have left that far behind. The only chance for Belarus to become a civilized European nation is to hold new elections. Honest, transparent and fair ones. With an open count of the votes. This alone can save the country from lawlessness.

Of course, Lukashenko’s name cannot appear on the ballot papers. But the names of those who are languishing in prisons should be there. And only then, when people finally will have had their say, will we return to normal life.

Andrei Sannikov does not know that we are talking about him at the People’s Assembly. Statkevich also does not know. But maybe if we all shout together, our voices will reach even the prisons where the presidential candidates are being held: “Hang on, lads! We are with you! We will win! ”

Dmitrii Drozd, a former political prisoner