(ANSA-AFP) - MINSK, JAN 27 - Belarus autocrat Alexander
Lukashenko, in power since 1994, won a seventh consecutive term
in office Sunday in an election denounced by the European Union
and the exiled opposition. With his opponents in prison or
exiled, the 70-year-old ruler appeared to have won 87.6 percent
of the vote, according to an official exit poll. Lukashenko has
orchestrated a ruthless crackdown on opponents since huge
protests against him in 2020. This time around, the candidates
picked to run against him actually campaigned in his favour.
Exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya called the
election a "farce", while the EU described it as a "sham".
Lukashenko, however, said he did not care whether or not the
bloc recognised the results. And he had "no regrets" over
letting his "older brother" Russian President Vladimir Putin's
troops enter Ukraine through Belarus in 2022 -- despite hundreds
of thousands of deaths in the three-year conflict. The vote took
place five years into a wave of heightened repression in
Belarus, during which time rights groups say the country has
jailed more than 1,200 political prisoners. In Sunday's election
victory he won more of the vote than in 2020, when he won 81.04
percent. (ANSA-AFP).
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