Alexander Lukashenko, the autocratic leader of Belarus who claimed victory in another election derided as a sham, played a "dirty game" in releasing an American hostage to coincide with the ballot, the country's opposition has told Newsweek.

Alexander Lukashenko, Europe’s longest-serving leader, has extended his 31-year rule in Belarus after being declared the winner of a presidential election that his exiled opponents and Western countries have denounced as a sham.

As Belarus votes amid repression, what drives Alexander Lukashenko, the president likely to secure a seventh term.

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

Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet state for 31 years, held a four-hour press conference musing that some of his opponents "chose prison", after winning 88 per cent of the vote.

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

Alexander Lukashenko is expected to extend his 31-year rule with 87.6% of the vote, according to an exit poll broadcast on state TV. Four opposition candidates appeared on ballots, but all are loyal to Mr Lukashenko and have praised his rule.

Belarus held an orchestrated election over the weekend that the opposition and the EU rejected as a farce, extending President Lukashenko's more than 30 years 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

The Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin, congratulated Alexander Lukashenko on his "victory in democratic elections." It's important to note that the EU stated that the elections in Belarus "were neither free nor fair.

Last week, a man at an automobile plant said that he hadn’t been following an election campaign very closely because he’d been busy. This wasn’t a clichéd vox pop with a disaffected heartland voter, but rather a comment made by Alexander Lukashenko,