MINSK, March 19 (RIA Novosti) - The main challenger of Belarus' long-standing authoritarian president in Sunday's polls said the rally planned by the opposition for the evening would be a peaceful one.

Alexander Milinkevich said, "I am appealing to all those advocating reform to come to tonight's rally. This will be a peaceful gathering, with people bringing along flowers."

Milinkevich, the main opposition candidate supported by a broad range of democratic parties, said he was certain that Belarus would make the right choice between the past and the future.

"I know that freedom and justice will come to the country," he said.

Milinkevich, 58, is running against the 51-year-old incumbent Alexander Lukashenko, as well as Alexander Kozulin, a former government minister who now leads a social democratic party, and Sergei Gaidukevich, widely seen as a Lukashenko loyalist.