The last time Belarus staged a presidential election in 2020, authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko was declared the winner with 80 per cent of the vote. That triggered cries of fraud, months of protests and a harsh crackdown with thousands of arrests.
Not wanting to risk such unrest again by those opposing his three decades of iron-fisted rule, Lukashenko advanced the timing of the 2025 election – from the warmth of August to frigid January, when demonstrators are less likely to fill the streets.
With many of his political opponents either jailed or exiled abroad, the 70-year-old Lukashenko is back on the ballot, and when the election concludes on Sunday, he is all but certain to add a seventh term as the only leader most people in post-Soviet Belarus have ever known.
Here’s what to know about Belarus, its election and its relationship with Russia:
‘Europe’s last dictator’ and his reliance on Russia
Belarus was part of the Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991. The Slavic nation of 9 million people is sandwiched between Russia and Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, the latter three all Nato members. It was overrun by Nazi Germany in World War II.
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Publish date : 2025-01-24 14:59:00
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