The E.U. has called Sunday’s election a sham. Lukashenko, running virtually unopposed, said he was “too busy” to even campaign.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is projected to take victory in the virtually uncontested election by a greater margin than he did in 2020.

Belarusians are voting in a closely-managed presidential election that is all but certain to extend the one-man rule of Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994 and Europe’s longest-serving leader.

Belarus “unilaterally” freed an American woman, Anastassia Nuhfer, from detention, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Sunday.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union rejected the election in Belarus on Sunday as illegitimate and threatened new sanctions. Belarus held an orchestrated vote virtually guaranteed to give 70-year-old autocratic President Alexander Lukashenko yet another term on top of his three decades in power.

Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko is all but certain to extend his more than three decades in power in Sunday’s election that is rejected by the opposition as a farce after years o

Europe’s longest-serving leader won re-election in a contest widely believe to have been rigged. The result cements the power of a leader whose country is considered Russia’s staunchest ally.

With many of his political opponents either jailed or exiled abroad, Alexander Lukashenko, dubbed “Europe’s last dictator,” is all but certain to add a seventh term.

Belarus votes in orchestrated election all but certain to extend the rule of authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko

(Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko pardoned 15 prisoners on Friday in what state media called a humanitarian gesture, two days before an election in which he is set to extend his 31-year rule.

Voter turnout totaled 51.09% in Brest Oblast, 45.87%, in Vitebsk Oblast, 51.16%, in Gomel Oblast, 46.49%, in Grodno Oblast, 45.90%, in Minsk Oblast, 48.79%, in Mogilev Oblast, and 44.39% in the city of Minsk.