Tsepkalo's wife on preliminary Belarus election results

Veronica Tsepkalo, wife of prominent Belarusian opposition figure Valery Tsepkalo and a close ally of presidential candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, said on Tuesday that the Central Election Commission has "mixed up the names" while announcing preliminary election results.

Tsepkalo argued that the opposition candidate "got over 75%" of the vote based on "independent exit polls". Speaking outside the Belarusian embassy in Moscow, she said that people who had queued for hours to vote in the elections at the embassy and had been turned away were "outraged" because "their right as Belarusian citizens wasn't exercised".

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya emerged as Lukashenko's main opponent after two other prominent opposition aspirants were denied places on the ballot. One was jailed for charges that he calls political and the other, an entrepreneur and former ambassador to the United States Valery Tsepkalo, fled to Russia after warnings that he would be arrested and his children taken away.

Tsepkalo's wife Veronika became a top member of Tsikhanouskaya's campaign, but she, too, has left the country. In Moscow people had to wait in a long queue outside the Belarusian embassy to cast their ballots.

"There are lots of people around who didn't manage to vote. They stood here four to sicx hours in a queue to the embassy to vote but never got a chance. Many people are outraged because their right as Belarusian citizens wasn't exercised. It makes people angry, " Tsepkalo said.