Belarusian election officials said the vote count put Mr. Lukashenko, the country’s long-serving leader, at 86.8 percent, while opposition and human rights activists called the election neither free nor fair.
According to the country’s electoral body, incumbent Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has won the disputed presidential election, winning his seventh term.
According to preliminary results released Monday by the Central Election Commission via its official Telegram account, Lukashenko got 86.8 percent of the vote in this election. His four opponents on the ballot were either fiercely loyal or extolled the virtues of his nearly 30 years in office.
You can congratulate the Republic of Belarus; we have elected a president,” Igor Karpenko, the head of the commission, told a news conference.
Election officials reported that Sunday’s vote turnout was 85.7 percent, with around 6.9 million people eligible to vote.
The Belarusian president has won all presidential elections since 1994, in votes that his opponents, Western governments, and rights groups rejected as a “sham.”
“Your convincing victory in the election testifies to your high political authority and the undoubted support of the population for the state policy Belarus is pursuing,” Putin said, according to a statement by the Kremlin.
“You are always a welcome and dear guest on Russian soil. As agreed, I look forward to seeing you soon in Moscow.”
The war in Ukraine has more tightly bound Lukashenko to Putin than ever, and tactical nuclear weapons are deployed in Belarus by Russia.
