According to preliminary results from Sunday’s presidential elections, President Alexander Lukashenko garnered 83.5 percent of the popular vote, giving him a landslide win for his fifth term in office.
“Belarus has held elections, the results of which are not surprising with the support given to Lukashenko, and were held with overall order, but were different. Political prisoners were released on the eve of elections, and as we saw from Berlin, there was no repression during the elections as is usual,” Steinmeier added.
Belarusians voted in a presidential election on Sunday that was won by the country’s incumbent leader, Alexander Lukashenko. The longtime president commanded 83.5 percent of the vote, according to Monday’s preliminary results, securing a landslide victory and a mandate for a fifth term in office.
Observers from neighboring states registered no irregularities during the vote. The final results are due on Friday when the election commission will have received all the returns from overseas constituencies.
The West accuses the Belarusian authorities of persecuting the political opposition and denying citizens’ basic rights and freedoms, in particular, freedom of expression. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko insists that the accusations are groundless and that putting pressure on Minsk is pointless.
