Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on January 27, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 27, 2026
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Belarusian leader Lukashenko wins a disputed election with 86.8% of the vote, facing rejection from Western governments and criticism over fairness.
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - 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.
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.
Asked about the jailing of his opponents, Lukashenko said they had "chosen" their fate.
"Some chose prison, some chose 'exile', as you say. We didn't kick anyone out of the country," he told a rambling press conference on Sunday that lasted more than four hours and 20 minutes.
The close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin had earlier defended his jailing of dissidents and declared: "I don't give a damn about the West."
(Writing by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Reporting by Mark Trevelyan and Filipp Lebedev in London; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
The main topic is the disputed Belarus election where Lukashenko claimed victory amid Western criticism.
Western governments rejected the election results, citing unfair practices and lack of media freedom.
Leading opposition figures were either jailed or forced to flee abroad.
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