The first meeting of nominal president-elect of Belarus Svetlana Tikhanovskaya's Transfer of Power Coordination Council will be held on August 18 to begin the process of bringing in a new government ahead of fresh elections.

"We're starting to form the Coordination Council. It will be an extended working group of the most respected members of the society to discuss and develop safe and stable mechanisms to ensure the transition of power," Tikhanovskaya said in a statement. 

The statement also said that the HQ has started receiving applications of potential members of the council. A member of the council must enjoy "great respect of the society" and be "ready to share ideas for the changes for the better, constructively discuss proposals and respect the opinion of other members of the council," the HQ said.

Tikhanovskaya in a new video says she is ready to become the national transitional leader. “I never wanted to be a political leader, but fate conspired to put me on [the] frontline in [the] battle against arbitrary rule and injustice.... You gave me strength... Truth isn't on the side of force of arms; truth is on the side of strength of spirit, honesty, decency and courage." 

Dozens of prominent representatives of civil society, big private business and workers' delegates became members of the council. Among the names is Svetlana Alexievich, who won a Nobel prize for literature in October 2015 for a book that depicts the harsh realities of life in the Soviet Union. She has been an outspoken critic of the Lukashenko government. 

“I was quite surprised to see Alexander Zentner. He's one of the richest people in Belarus, the largest real estate developer, one of those who have a lot to lose. The organisers admit, though, that without representatives of siloviki and the state sector it'd be rather pointless,” Tadeusz Giczan tweeted, a Belarusian PhD candidate at University College London School of Slavonic & East European Studies.

The focus is now switching from street protests to launching a legal attack on the administration of Belarus' self-appointed President Alexander Lukashenko.

The headquarters of arrested unregistered presidential candidate Viktor Babariko made a demand at the start of the weekend that new elections must be held by September 15.

"To announce new honest election before September 15 with the participation of all alternative candidates under the observation of international organisations with new election commissions, a new Central Election Committee, video surveillance, open vote count," the statement noted.

Separately the National Salvation Front of Belarus, which was created Valery Tsepkalo, a presidential candidate who was denied registration and now in exile in Ukraine, announced on August 13 that it would bring a case against Lukashenko before International Court of Justice in The Hague, accusing the president of human rights abuses.

And back in Minsk, Belarus’ opposition was in court on August 17 demanding a criminal case be opened against law enforcement agencies over its excessive use of force to disperse protests, according to Maria Kolesnikova, one of the trio that campaigned against Lukashenko and the only one of the three that is still in Minsk.

"[On August 17], we will lodge a motion to open a criminal case over the death of people and illegal actions of law enforcers. All those who used violence must be held responsible under the Belarusian laws," she said as cited by Maxim Znak, an attorney of Tikhanovskaya’s election team.

In the meantime, the state has nailed its flag to the mast. Lukashenko said again at a meeting with workers of a truck-maker that went disastrously wrong for him that there would be no new elections. The head of the Central Election Commission (CEC) Lidiya Yermoshina also reiterated that the August 9 election results were final. There are reports that the CEC has already burnt all the ballot papers from the August 9 election to prevent a re-count.

Yermoshina said before the weekend that all complaints filed by candidates in the country’s recent presidential election have been rejected.

"All of them have been rejected. We have no choice. People think that we have the authority to review [the results] and declare Tikhanovskaya the winner, but this is impossible. If violations, which they claim had taken place, are confirmed, the elections can be declared invalid. In this case, another election campaign with new candidates should take place within three months," she said in an interview with KP Belarus.

EU getting more involved in Belarus crisis

After a slow start the EU is staring to get more involved in the Belarusian crisis. Most of the delegates to the Brussels have now openly rejected the August 9 presidential election results, further undermining Lukashenko's legitimacy.

They released a joint statement that went to the length of making the Belarusian strongman a persona non grata in the EU.

"We join the Belarusian people in its demands of new and free elections under surveillance of independent supervisors", the statement says.

Another emergency meeting on Belarus is slated to be held on August 18 and German Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to hold a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin the same day to discuss the situation in Minsk.

With rumours of an imminent invasion flying again, this time not into Ukraine but Belarus, Brussels has also warned the Kremlin not to interfere with the what is a domestic political crisis, while at the same time MEPs have called for the EU to get a lot more involved.

A spokesperson for the government Brussels has admitted that the EU has opened talks with Tikhanovskaya who is currently in Lithuania, but revealed no details of the subject of the talks.

Members of the Transfer of Power Coordination Council
Svetlana Alexievich	Nobel laureate for literature
Lyudmila Antonovskaya	Chairman of the Association "Innovative Instrumentation", teacher
Pavel Belous	founder and owner of Symbal.by
Ales Bialiatski	human rights activist, chairman of the human rights center "Viasna"
Andrey Vitushko	children's resuscitator, candidate of medical sciences
Lilia Vlasova	international mediator, lawyer
Vitaly Volianyuk	Director of Probusiness
Alana Gebremariam	activist of the Youth Block
Yuri Gubarevich	politician, chairman of the movement "For Freedom"
Pavel Daneiko	Manager of the IPM group of companies
Alexander Dobrovolsky	politician, member of the Political Council of the United Civil Party
Ales Duko	administration of the park "Great Stone"
Vladimir Dunaev	professor, expert of the Public Bologna Committee
Andrey Egorov	political scientist, director of the Center for European Transformation
Maxim Sign	lawyer
Svetlana Kalinkina	journalist
Olga Kovalkova	confidant of Svetlana Tikhonovskaya
Nikolay Kozlov	confidant of Svetlana Tikhonovskaya
Maria Kolesnikova	headquarters coordinator of Victor Babariko
Dmitry Kruk	economist
Igor Kubashkov	student community representative
Andrey Kureichik	screenwriter, playwright, director, publicist
Evgeny Livyant	teacher, head of the tutoring center "100 points"
Sergey Makeikov	delegate of the Belarusian Metallurgical Plant
Tatiana Marynich	founder of the BELBIZ group of companies
Vladimir Pugach	musician, group "J: Mors", lawyer
Vitaly Rymashevsky	co-chairman of the organizing committee for the creation of the party "Belarusian Christian Democracy"
Anna Sevyarynets	teacher, writer, literary critic
Andrey Strizhak	BY-COVID campaign activist
Yuri Khashchevatsky	filmmaker
Alexander Center	head of the group of companies "A-100"
Vladimir Tsesler	artist
Sergey Chaly	independent analyst, economist
Yulia Chernyavskaya	culturologist, professor
Alexey Shchurko	businessman GURTAM
source: naviny.by