Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has secured a seventh term in office following a tightly controlled and widely criticized election.
Official results reported by the Belarus Central Election Commission gave Lukashenko nearly 87% of the vote, with his nearest rival receiving just over 3%. Opposition groups and Western nations have denounced the election as illegitimate, citing a lack of independent monitoring, ballot-box irregularities, and the absence of meaningful competition. Lukashenko’s challengers on the ballot all stated in one way or another that they were aligned with him.
This election comes amid the lingering trauma of the 2020 presidential vote, which led to massive protests—the largest in Belarus’s history—and a brutal government crackdown. Over 65,000 people were arrested during the protests, with many beaten or imprisoned. Thousands of Belarusians have since fled the country, with an estimated 300,000 going primarily to Poland and Lithuania. These exiles, however, were barred from voting, as Belarus eliminated expatriate voting.
Lukashenko has maintained power through a combination of repression and reliance on Russian support. Since 2020, his regime has imprisoned nearly 1,300 political opponents, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, and has continued to target activists, relatives of political prisoners, and donors to opposition groups. Just last month, 188 people were detained in raids.
The election was marked by further tightening of control. Early voting, which spanned five days, saw record participation but created opportunities for irregularities, with unguarded ballot boxes and limited oversight. Internet restrictions, including blocked access to VPNs, further suppressed dissent. Authorities removed curtains from polling stations to prevent voters from photographing ballots, a tactic used by the opposition in 2020 to document fraud.
Lukashenko portrayed himself as a guarantor of stability, running under the slogan “Peace and Security” and claiming credit for keeping Belarus out of the war in Ukraine. Yet, he has allowed Russia to use Belarusian territory to launch its invasion of Ukraine and even hosts Russian tactical nuclear weapons.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, an exiled opposition leader, called the election a “senseless farce” and urged voters to void their ballots as a form of protest. The European Union declared the election neither free nor fair and threatened new sanctions against Lukashenko’s regime.
Despite rumors about his health, including visible difficulty walking and speaking, Lukashenko appears resolute in maintaining his grip on Belarus, and has hinted that he would consider running again in 2030.