Elections in Belarus extend President Lukashenko’s rule, which the opposition EU denounces as a sham

• Belarus held an orchestrated election this weekend that was dismissed as a farce by the opposition and the EU, extending authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko’s more than three decades in power.
• The 2020 Belarusian elections, dubbed a sham by dissenters, sparked months of unprecedented protests in the country.
• Lukashenko has been in power since 1994 and relied on subsidies and political support from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who also helped him survive the 2020 protests.

Belarus is authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko extended his more than three decades in power in an orchestrated weekend election that the opposition and the European Union dismissed as a farce.

The Central Election Commission said early on Monday that Lukashenko had won the election with almost 87% of the vote, after a campaign in which four symbolic challengers all praised his rule.

Members of the country’s political opposition, many of whom are imprisoned or exiled abroad due to Lukashenko’s continued crackdown on dissent and freedom of expression, called the election a sham – just like the previous one in 2020, which sparked months of protests unprecedented in the country’s history. the country with 9 million inhabitants.

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Since then, more than 65,000 people have been arrested and thousands beaten, with the crackdown bringing condemnation and sanctions from the West.

The EU rejected Sunday’s vote as illegal and threatened new sanctions.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the election left voters without a choice, marking “a bitter day for everyone who longs for freedom and democracy.”

The head of the Central Commission of the Republic of Belarus, Igor Karpenko, fifth from left, and his colleagues attend a press conference on the results of the presidential elections on January 27, 2025 in Minsk, Belarus. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)

“Instead of free and fair elections and a life without fear and arbitrariness, they experience oppression, repression and human rights violations on a daily basis,” she said in a post on X.

Lukashenko has been in power since 1994 and rules the country with an iron fist. He has relied on subsidies and political support from Russian President Vladimir Putinwho himself spent a quarter of a century in office, a relationship that helped him survive the 2020 protests.

Lukashenko allowed Moscow to use the country’s territory to invade Ukraine in 2022 and later hosted some of Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons.

Putin called Lukashenko on Monday to congratulate him on his “convincing victory.” Chinese President Xi Jinping also sent congratulations.

Some observers believe that Lukashenko feared a repeat of those mass demonstrations amid Ukraine’s economic troubles and fighting, so he scheduled the vote for January, when few would want to fill the streets again, instead of August to keep.

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Leading opponents have fled abroad or been thrown into prison. Activists say the country is holding nearly 1,300 political prisoners, including Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski, founder of the Viasna Human Rights Center.

Since July, Lukashenko has pardoned more than 250 people. At the same time, authorities have tried to stamp out dissent by arresting hundreds of others in raids against relatives and friends of political prisoners.

Opposition leader in exile Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who fled Belarus under pressure from the government after challenging Lukashenko in 2020, he denounced the election as a “pointless farce” and urged voters to cross off anyone on the ballot.