Presidential elections were held in Belarus on 26 January 2025. The president is directly elected to serve a five-year term.
Incumbent president Alexander Lukashenko has won every presidential election since 1994, with all but the first being deemed by international monitors as neither free nor fair.[1] Prior to the elections, independent media was closed down or forced to operate from abroad.[2] Aside from Lukashenko, there were four candidates on the ballot. Three of them represented pro-government parties. The fourth candidate, Hanna Kanapatskaya, was the only formally independent candidate, but opposition figures accused her of being a stooge, which her supporters have denied.[2]
Following exit poll results indicating Lukashenko's decisive victory, the election was described as a sham by critics.[3][4][5] Lukashenko faced no serious challenge on the ballot from the other candidates and received over 87% of the vote.[6]
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