Alexander Lukashenko was elected for a seventh five -year term in the presidency of Belarus, extending his 31 -year -old rule, after electoral officials officially declared him the winner of the presidential elections held yesterday.

“You can congratulate the Republic of Belarus, we have elected president,” said Igor Karpenko, head of the Central Election Committee during a press conference early this morning.

Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who in different cases has either accepted or rejected the designation “the last dictator of Europe”, did not have real opponents in the elections and garnered 86.8% of the vote, according to the preliminary results published in the official account of the Central Election Committee.

The participation amounted to 85.7% and the right to vote had 6.9 million citizens.

‘Ran’ alone and came first

European politicians complained that the elections were neither free nor fair because independent media are banned in Belarus, while all the leading opposition officials have been imprisoned or forced to flee abroad.

“The people of Belarus had no choice. It is a bitter day for those seeking freedom and democracy, “commented German Foreign Minister Analena Berbock in X.

When asked about the imprisonment of his opponents, Lukashenko said yesterday, Sunday, during a press conference that they chose their own luck.

“Some chose prison, some chose ‘exile’, as you say. I didn’t throw anyone with the kicks from the country, “he said during this press conference that lasted more than four hours.

Earlier, the Belarusian president had defended his decision to imprison dissidents and had emphasized that “I do not give a damn to the West”.

Opposition leader Svetlana Tihanovskaya said this week that Lucashenko has organized his re -election in the context of a “ritual for dictators”.

Demonstrations took place yesterday, Sunday, against Lukashenko in Warsaw and other cities in Eastern Europe.

The president of Belarus himself rejects criticism, considering the trivial, while saying he is not interested in whether the West recognizes the outcome of the presidential election.

The EU and the US have announced that they do not consider him a legal leader of Belarus after using security forces to forcefully suppress the demonstrations that broke out after his previous election in 2020, when Western governments had supported Tihanovskaya’s allegations that Lukashenko performed in fraud and deprived her of the victory.

The Viasna Human Rights Defense Organization, which has been outlawed in Belarus, considered an “extremist” organization, pointed out that about 1,250 political prisoners are still in the country’s prisons, despite the fact that Lukasenko gave more than 250 more than 250. For humanitarian reasons, as he explained.

In addition, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said yesterday that Belarus “has just unilaterally liberated an innocent American”, which he named as Anastasia Nufere, but without any further details.