Voting underway in Belarus with Lukashenko scheduled to extend 30-year rule Election news

Longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko is set to win in seventh place as he runs unopposed by original challengers.

Polls are underway in Belarus for a presidential election, with a long-time leader Alexander Lukashenko He is expected to spend more than three decades in power in the absence of any real opposition.

Voters began casting their ballots at 8 a.m. local time (05:00 GMT) on Sunday in Minsk’s first presidential election since Lukashenko crushed mass protests against his government in 2020 and allowed Moscow to use Belarusian territory for its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The 70-year-old former collective farm head has been in Belarus since 1994 Find the seventh period.

The country’s last presidential election in 2020 ended in nationwide protests, unprecedented in the history of the country of nine million people. The opposition and Western countries accused Lukashenko of rigging the elections and imposed sanctions.

In response, his government launched a sweeping crackdown, leaving more than 1,000 people imprisoned, including Nobel Prize winner Pace Białski, founder of the Viasna Human Rights Centre.

The United Nations estimates that about 300,000 Belarusians have left the country since 2020 – most of them to Poland and Lithuania. They will not be able to vote, as Belarus has canceled voting abroad.

“All our opponents and enemies must understand: We hope not, we will never repeat what we had in 2020,” Lukashenko told the Minsk newspaper during a ceremony on Friday.

Europe’s last dictator

Lukashenko’s iron rule, which began two years after the demise of the Soviet Union, has earned him the title of “Europe’s last dictator”—which he embraces—relying on support and political backing from an ally.

The four candidates running against Lukashenko were chosen to give the election an air of democracy and not let the few know who they are. They are loyal to him and praise his rule.

“I am entering the race not against him, but with Lukashenko, and I am ready to act as his talisman,” said Communist Party candidate Sergei Serankov, who favors criminalizing LGBTQ activities and rebuilding monuments to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

Candidate Alexander Khudnyak, head of the Republican Party of Labor and Justice, led a Minsk voting district in 2020 and promised to prevent a “recurrence of unrest.”

Oleg Gaidojevic, head of the Liberal Democratic Party, endorsed Lukashenko’s support in 2020 and urged his colleagues to “make Lukashenko’s enemies sick.”

The fourth contender, Hanna Kannabatskaya, actually received 1.7 percent of the vote in 2020 and says she is “the only democratic alternative to Lukashenko,” promising to push for the freedom of political prisoners but warning supporters against “excessive initiative.”

Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, called the election a “sham” in a post on X, saying “Lukashenko has no legitimacy.”