Belarus votes in election poised to extend decades-long rule of Alexander Lukashenko
When Alexander Lukashenko emerged victorious from Belarus's presidential election in 2020, protesters came out on the streets to accuse him of election fraud and call for his resignation. But as Belarusians went to the polls Sunday, Lukashenko is all but certain to win a seventh term as the only leader most people in Belarus have ever known.
Belarusians voted on Sunday in an election set to hand President Alexander Lukashenko a seventh term, prolonging his three-decade authoritarian rule.
Lukashenko – a 70-year-old former collective farm boss – has been in power in reclusive, Moscow-allied Belarus since 1994.
Speaking after casting his vote in the capital Minsk, the self-avowed "dictator" dismissed critics of his rule and said he could release political prisoners as long as they asked him for a pardon.
Lukashenko suppressed mass protests against his rule after the last election in 2020. He has since allowed Moscow to use Belarusian territory to invade Ukraine in 2022.
All of Lukashenko's political opponents are either in prison – some held incommunicado – or in exile along with hundreds of thousands of Belarusians who have fled since 2020.
(AFP)
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