Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko won re-election over the weekend in a vote that the country’s exiled opposition and Western leaders have decried as a “sham.” Photo by Belarus president press-service/EPA-EFE
Jan. 27 (UPI) — Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko won re-election over the weekend in a vote that has been decried as a “sham” by the opposition and Western obsevers.
Lukashenko, known as “Europe’s last dictator,” will be in power for another six years with the election win. His last election victory created protests around the country, leading to a violent crackdown where opponents were jailed or driven from the country.
Belarus’ central election commission said that Lukashenko won 87% of the vote while his closest opponent received 3%.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, Belarus’s leading opposition leader now in exile, called the election “yet another political farce.” Her husband, another top opposition leader, remains in prison there. The country banned all independent election observers this time around.
The election commission showed that 3.6% of voters heeded Tikhanovskaya’s call to vote against all candidates as she urged world leaders to decline to recognize the vote “where all independent media and opposition parties have been destroyed and prisons are filled by political prisoners.
Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign policy leader, and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock both criticized the election as well, calling it undemocratic and giving the Belarusian people no real choice.
Lukashenko, however, received a congratulatory call from his longtime ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday after the vote secured his seventh term.
Putin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, called Lukashenko’s win a “solid victory.”
“[The election was] absolutely legitimate, well-organized, transparent election,” Pesko said.
Leaders in China, Pakistan, and Venezuela also extended their congratulations to Lukashenko as well.