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| - Belarus investigators on Thursday raided companies and a bank linked to opposition politician Viktor Babaryko, who is seeking to challenge President Alexander Lukashenko in polls due in August. Law enforcement authorities in the ex-Soviet country are cracking down on would-be opposition candidates ahead of an election in which Lukashenko is vying for a sixth term. The run-up has seen a flurry of opposition activity and the detention of prominent figures. Thursday's raids targeted Belgazprombank, a subsidiary of Russian energy giant Gazprom that Babaryko headed before he launched his presidential bid, as well as companies linked to him. In a message to his supporters published on YouTube, the 56-year-old Babaryko condemned the move as a "pressure" tactic. The incident "clearly shows that representatives of the current leadership are ready to use any means to prevent fair elections," he said. The state control committee, an audit body, said that criminal probes had been opened into tax dodging and money laundering. It said the suspects were former and current bankers. Belarus has been ruled since 1994 by Lukashenko, a former collective farm director, who at 65 has raised the possibility of serving a further two terms. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, an international election and war monitor, has not recognised any polls in Belarus since 1995 as free and fair. No opposition candidate has yet been registered. Babaryko said the raids were "directed at my friends, at the people I worked with." He suggested that the aim was to scare people into giving false testimony, but vowed to "continue our fight". Speaking to AFP, Babaryko said the authorities needed to realise that people want change. "Belarus has woken up," he said. "If the authorities don't understand this, it could end badly." Elections in Belarus have long been seen as a formality with predetermined results. But Babaryko said the current campaign was unusual with the opposition fighting hard to get on the ballot. "This is happening for the first time in 26 years," he said. On the same day, another key opposition figure announced a halt to gathering signatures to contest the presidential election, citing intimidation. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya told supporters in a video that she was stopping the campaign in large cities for the next three days because supporters were being detained and fined. "I'm afraid there will be various types of provocations against you on those days," she said. Tikhanovskaya launched her campaign after her husband Sergei Tikhanovsky, a vlogger who calls Lukashenko "the cockroach", was unable to file papers for his bid because he was under arrest. He is currently jailed along with supporters on public order charges. tk-am-as/jbr/ach
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