Belarus‘s Lukashenko wins election slammed by EU as ‘sham’

Belarusian President and presidential candidate Alexander Lukashenko casts his ballot during Belarus' presidential election at a polling station in the capital Minsk on January 26, 2025.

Alexander Lukashenko extended his 31-year leadership in Belarus, claiming 86.8% in a disputed presidential vote, state media reported. Western critics denounced the election as neither free nor fair, noting the suppression of independent media and the exile or imprisonment of opposition figures.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko extended his 31-year rule with a massive win in a presidential election that Western governments have rejected as a sham, according to preliminary results on Monday.

"You can congratulate the Republic of Belarus, we have elected a president," the head of the country's Central Election Commission of the Republic Igor Karpenko told a press conference in the early hours of Monday, according to Russian state media.

According to results published on the Central Election Commission's Telegram account, Lukashenko took 86.8% of the vote in Sunday's election.

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European politicians said the vote was neither free nor fair because independent media are banned in the former Soviet state and all leading opposition figures have been sent to penal colonies or forced to flee abroad.

"The people of Belarus had no choice. It is a bitter day for all those who long for freedom & democracy," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock posted on X.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski expressed mock surprise that "only" 87.6% of the electorate appeared to have backed Lukashenko.

"Will the rest fit inside the prisons?" he wrote on X.

(Reuters)


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