Election: Thousands attend Tsikhanouskaya's campaign rally Minsk
Thousands of people came to Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's campaigning picket in Minsk / Euroradio
The first campaign meeting of presidential candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya with Minsk residents took place in the Peoples' Friendship Park On July 19.
According to the estimates of Viasna human rights activists, about 7.5 thousand people gathered at the site. People came with families, children, dogs, flowers and flags. They came by bicycle and scooters. The passing by motorists greeted them with honks of support.
During her speech, Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya stated that she wanted to become president of Belarus for the sake of changes and new fair elections.
"It's better to do everything possible now than to wave goodbye to our hope for freedom to the pop tunes of the Slavianski Bazaar," stated Maryia Kalesnikava, representative of Viktar Babaryka's election team, during the picket.
"Hope is what Belarusians don't have, and we want to change it," Veranika Tsapkala said.
People strongly supported Tsikhanouskaya shouting "Sveta! Sveta". At one point Svyatlana had tears in her eyes from the emotions. The audience listened and reacted loudly with slogans "Freedom!", "Long Live Belarus!", "Victory!" to every word of Svyatlana and representatives of Valery Tsapkala and Viktar Babaryka's teams -- Veranika Tsapkala and Maryia Kalesnikava.
During the picket in the Peoples' Friendship Park, there were problems with mobile network. It made the work of journalists harder. Immediately after the rally, the fans of Tsikhanouskaya went home. The Internet and mobile phones started working again.
