In the early hours of January 27, Belarus’s Central Election Commission announced the preliminary results of the country’s presidential election. According to the commission, Aleksandr Lukashenko secured the majority of votes, with 86.82 percent.
The ballot included four other candidates. The commission reported that Sergei Syrankov received 3.21 percent, Oleg Gaidukevich 2.02 percent, Hanna Kanapatskaya 1.86 percent, and Aleksandr Khizhnyak 1.74 percent. Additionally, 3.6 percent of voters chose the option to vote against all candidates.
Ahead of the election, Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya declared that neither the Belarusian people nor the international community would recognize the results of the so-called election. E.U. officials also stated that they did not consider the election free or fair.
Aleksandr Lukashenko, who has held power in Belarus since 1994, ran for president for the seventh time.
The previous presidential election in 2020 sparked the largest protests in Belarus’s history. Demonstrations broke out after the election commission announced that Lukashenko had won 80.1 percent of the vote, while his main challenger, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, received 10.12 percent. The Belarusian opposition accused the government of widespread election fraud and asserted that Tsikhanouskaya was the rightful winner.