Coordination Council for the Transfer of Power

The Coordination Council for the Transfer of Power (CCTP, ; ) is a non-governmental body created by presidential candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya to facilitate a democratic transfer of power in Belarus. The Council, founded during the 2020 Belarusian protests in response to the disputed 2020 Belarusian presidential election, has 64 core members with a 7-member leadership presidium. The first meeting of the Council took place on 18 August 2020. From late August to mid-October, Tsikhanouskaya and several of the presidium members were arrested or chose to exile themselves from Belarus, fearing repression by Belarusian security forces. In September 2020, Lithuania, where the council was based , became the only sovereign state to recognize the CCTP as the sole legitimate government of Belarus. History Creation The formation of the Coordination Council was announced on 14 August 2020, in a video released by Tsikhanouskaya. In the video, she also claimed that she had received between 60 and 70% of the vote in the 9 August presidential election, more than enough for an outright victory over longtime president Alexander Lukashenko. She appealed to the international community to recognise her as the winner. Tsikhanouskaya stated that the aims of the council is to coordinate a peaceful and orderly transfer of power from Lukashenko and to hold a new, free and fair presidential election at the earliest opportunity.