MOSCOW (Reuters) - Opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya appealed to Belarusians on Tuesday to throw their support behind a national strike to oust President Alexander Lukashenko, but the government insisted that companies were working as normal.On the second day of the strike she has said will paralyse the country, Tsikhanouskaya said employees at a string of major companies were refusing to work their shifts but coming under “colossal pressure” from the authorities. Eleven weeks after running against Lukashenko in a presidential election that the opposition and Western governments say was rigged, Tsikhanouskaya - who fled to Lithuania after the vote - is facing a critical test of her ability to mobilise popular support. “If we help the factories go on strike, they will help us finish what we started,” she said on social media. “Remember: every active peaceful step brings us closer to ending the violence, winning freedom for political prisoners and finally holding new, fair elections.” Photos and videos posted on Twitter showed protests at high schools and several universities and workers holding placards and opposition red-and-white flags outside a telecoms company in Minsk. But the strike calls have so far failed to shut down state enterprises in the former Soviet republic of 9.5 million people. Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko said the situation was “absolutely calm”, and attacked what he called “direct appeals to cause harm to our country”. A representative of heavy vehicle manufacturer MZKT, contacted by Reuters, said: “We have no strikes here. Everything is fine, we’re all working.” Lukashenko, in power since 1994 and drawing on support from his key ally, Russia, ignored an ultimatum from Tsikhanouskaya to step down by Sunday and since then has stepped up his rhetoric against the opposition.