Belarus: Lukashenko claims landslide in election labelled as 'sham'
2025-01-27
Category: news

Authoritarian Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has secured another victory in an election labelled by Western governments as a sham.The Central Election Committee stated on Monday that Lukashenko won 86.8% of the vote and that turnout was almost 87%.There were four other names on the ballot - carefully chosen to present no challenge to the current leadership - but no credible contenders were allowed to take part in the election, as all opposition figures are either in jail or in exile abroad. No independent observers monitored the vote, either.The EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said the election had been a blatant affront to democracy, while German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock posted on X that "the people of Belarus had no choice".Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin - who has ruled Russia since 2000 - congratulated his close ally Lukashenko for his "solid victory". Peskov said Moscow believed that the Belarusian election was an "absolutely legitimate, well organised, transparent election" and slammed "the voices that sound from the West".The leaders of China, Venezuela and Pakistan also offered their congratulations to Lukashenko.Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya dismissed the election as "yet another political farce". She claimed victory in the 2020 election, in which she stood in placed of her jailed husband. Lukashenko mistakenly believed Tikhanovskaya would pose no challenge to him - but after she appeared to have won massive support, she was driven out of the country. No opposition now remains in Belarus, which has also shuttered all its independent media.On Sunday evening, Lukashenko told the BBC's Steve Rosenberg his opponents had "chosen" prison or exile. "We never forced anyone out of the country," he said, adding that he "couldn't care less whether [the West] recognises our election".This will be Lukashenko's seventh term in power. He has ruled Belarus since 1994.