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

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

Belarusians are voting in a closely-managed presidential election that is all but certain to extend the one-man rule of Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994 and Europe’s longest-serving leader.

Belarus “unilaterally” freed an American woman, Anastassia Nuhfer, from detention, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Sunday.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union rejected the election in Belarus on Sunday as illegitimate and threatened new sanctions. Belarus held an orchestrated vote virtually guaranteed to give 70-year-old autocratic President Alexander Lukashenko yet another term on top of his three decades in power.

Europe’s longest-serving leader won re-election in a contest widely believe to have been rigged. The result cements the power of a leader whose country is considered Russia’s staunchest ally.

MINSK (Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was on track to win a seventh five-year term with 87.6% of the vote in Sunday's election, according to an exit poll broadcast on state television.

With many of his political opponents either jailed or exiled abroad, Alexander Lukashenko, dubbed “Europe’s last dictator,” is all but certain to add a seventh term.

President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, a close ally of Russia’s leader, Vladimir V. Putin, has been making signs of reaching out to the West. He is all but certain to win an election on Sunday.

Belarus votes in orchestrated election all but certain to extend the rule of authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko

Alexander Lukashenko, the strongman who has ruled Belarus for three decades, secured a seventh term in power following an election on Sunday in which he faced no real competition. State media reported that 70-year-old Lukashenko,