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Lukashenko wins new term in sham’ Belarus election
The Independent|January 28, 2025
Belarus’ authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko has extended his more than three decades in power after an orchestrated election that the opposition and the European Union rejected as a sham.
Lukashenko wins new term in sham’ Belarus election

The Central Election Commission declared Mr Lukashenko the winner for the seventh time in the early hours of yesterday and reaffirmed it later in the morning, saying the strongman leader garnered nearly 87 per cent of the vote after a campaign in which four token challengers all praised his rule.

Mr Lukashenko’s opponents, many of whom are imprisoned or exiled abroad by his unrelenting crackdown on dissent and free speech, called the election a sham – much like the last one in 2020 that triggered months of protests that were unprecedented in the history of the country of nine million people.

Over the following four years, more than 65,000 people were arrested and thousands beaten, with the crackdown bringing condemnation and sanctions from the West.

This story is from the January 28, 2025 edition of The Independent.

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Lukashenko wins new term in sham’ Belarus election
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This story is from the January 28, 2025 edition of The Independent.

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