Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has won the election and will lead the country for a seventh term.
This extends his three-decade rule of the former Soviet republic for another five years, according to polls after Sunday’s election.
Lukashenko, according to national broadcaster Belta, received around 86.82% of the vote, according to Igor Karpenko, head of the Central Election Commission. According to the same sources, none of the other candidates received more than 5% of the vote.
The result means that Lukashenko will remain in power until 2030. He is Belarus’ first and so far only post-independence president, with a rule that began in 1994 and now spans seven consecutive terms.
Lukashenko faced widespread international criticism after the 2020 presidential election, when several Western governments accused him of electoral fraud – something he himself denied.
For Lukashenko A.G. – 86.82%
The Central Election Commission announced preliminary information on the number of voters’ votes .
The final press conference of the Central Election Commission of Belarus “On the preliminary results of the elections of the President of the Republic… pic.twitter.com/VJ3yLsiX2k
— Sprinter Observer (@SprinterObserve) January 27, 2025
Described in the West as a “dictator”
Following the 2020 elections, widespread protests broke out in Belarus. Western-backed opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who lives in exile, still insists she was the rightful winner.
Western media often describe Lukashenko as a dictator and in November he himself admitted that there is a dictatorship in Belarus, but that it is “a dictatorship of stability, security, order, kindness, and hospitality. A dictatorship of justice”.
Lukashenko has previously stressed the importance of elections being conducted properly to avoid what he called “an American-style show”, referring to the violence in the US after the 2020 presidential election. Ahead of this year’s elections, he has stressed that a “correct electoral process” is crucial to avoid criticism from the outside world.
Belarus has been a strategic partner of Russia since 1999. After the conflict in Ukraine escalated in 2022, the relationship between the two countries has further strengthened. Last year, Moscow and Minsk signed a new security agreement in response to the US military build-up in Europe.
The agreement includes, among other things, plans to station the Russian Oreshnik medium-range hypersonic missile system in Belarus by 2025.