MINSK (Sputnik) — The vote is held from 8 a.m. local time (05:00 GMT) and will last until 8 p.m. More than 900 international observers have been accredited by the election committee to monitor the counting of votes.
There are four candidates for the presidential race, including incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko, Belarusian Patriotic Party Chairman and head of the Belarusian Cossacks organization Nikolai Ulakhovich, Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party Sergei Gaidukevich and activist of the 'Say the Truth!' campaign Tatyana Korotkevich.
A September survey carried out by the Independent Institute of Socio-Economic and Political Studies forecast that Lukashenko would get over 60 percent and Korotkevich — about 25 percent — of the vote.
The incumbent country’s leader participated in a total of five election campaigns in the history of the republic since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
