Belarusian President Lukashenko Leads With 80.23% of Votes, Election Commission Says

The presidential election was held in Belarus on Sunday with five candidates on the ballot, including incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko. The first preliminary data from polling sites showed that Lukashenko is set to win a six term by a landslide. The opposition has claimed that falsifications took place during the vote.

According to preliminary results, Belarus incumbent president Alexander Lukashenko has received 80.23 percent of votes, while his opposition challenger Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has received 9.9 percent of votes, Lidia Yermoshina, the chairwoman of the Belarusian Central Election Commission, said on Monday.

"Total of 4,652,000 people, or 80.23 percent, voted for Alexander Lukashenko," Lidia Yermoshina said at a briefing.

As many as 5,790,000 people cast their ballots, with the turnout amounting to 84.23 percent.

According to the head of the Belarusian Central Election Commission, the preliminary results are unlikely to change.

Yermoshina also said she was evacuated from the House of Government, located in the center of Minsk and housing the bicameral parliament, in the early hours of Monday, following the presidential election.

"We were receiving the results of the election literally manually, since the Central Commission — at least me and the analyst, there were only two of us — were evacuated from the House of Government at 01:00 [22:00 Sunday GMT]. So we received the results of the election just now, shortly before the briefing," Yermoshina told reporters.

The preliminary results were announced after unsanctioned protests erupted across the country. In Minsk, demonstrators used dumpsters to erect barricades and threw firecrackers at law enforcement officers. The police responded with tear gas, water cannons and stun grenades.

Several people were injured, and some were detained. The Interior Ministry has yet to announce the exact number of those detained.