Lukashenko has claimed a landslide in the election labeled as a “sham”.

Alexander Lukashenko, the authoritarian leader of Belarus, has won another victory in an election that Western governments called a fraud.

The Central Election Commission announced on Monday that Lukashenko won 86.8% of the vote and the turnout was almost 87%.

There were four other names on the ballot – carefully chosen so as not to challenge the current leadership – but no credible candidates took part in the election, as all opposition figures are in prison or in exile abroad.

Independent observers also did not monitor the vote.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the election was a blatant affront to democracy, while German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock posted on X that “the people of Belarus had no choice.”

On the other hand, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said that President Vladimir Putin – 2000. who ruled Russia since 2011—he congratulated his close ally Lukashenko on his “resounding victory.”

Peskov said Moscow believed the elections in Belarus to be “fully legitimate, well-organized and transparent elections,” and dismissed “voices heard from the West.”

The leaders of China, Venezuela and Pakistan also congratulated Lukashenko.

Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya dismissed the election as “yet another political farce”.

She won the 2020 elections, replacing her husband who was in prison.

Lukashenko mistakenly believed that Tikhanovskaia would not challenge him, but it seems that he gained a lot of support, so he was expelled from the country.

Now there is no opposition in Belarus, which has also shut down all its independent media.

On Sunday afternoon, Lukashenko told the BBC’s Steve Rosenberg that his opponents had “chosen” jail or exile.

“We have never forced anyone out of the country,” he said, adding that “it didn’t matter if (the West) respects our elections.”

It will be Lukashenko’s seventh term. He has ruled Belarus since 1994.