Belarusians will vote on Sunday in presidential elections as President Alexander Lukashenko seeks a seventh term in power.

For 30 years, 70-year-old Lukashenko has been called “Europe’s last dictator” by many analysts. He has ruled the country with an iron fist and suppressed all voices that opposed him.

The president, who is not involved in the current campaign, told factory workers last week: “To be honest with you, I don’t agree. I just don’t have the time.”

But after the last election in 2020, mass protests erupted after the leader was declared the winner despite reports of rising popular anger against him. The opposition and the West claimed his victory was fraudulent and stolen from candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was forced to flee the country.

Now, with his political opponents either jailed or in exile, his success on Sunday is widely seen as all but a certainty.

The election was originally planned for August but was later postponed until late winter. There’s a reason for this, Belarusian political analyst Valery Karbalevich told The Associated Press: “Large-scale protests don’t happen in the cold month of January.”

Here’s what you need to know about the election:

When does voting open?

Voting across the country opens at 8am (05:00GMT) and continues until 8pm (17:00GMT).

Belarus operates a first-past-the-post system, with citizens voting for the head of state and legislative body every five years.

Belarusians aged 18 and over will be able to participate.

The results of the election are expected to be announced on February 5, and if necessary, a second round of elections will be held on February 12.

How many people are expected to vote?

State news agency BelTA reported on Friday that after three days of early voting, turnout was 27.15%.

BelTA reported last week that in a December poll of 1,500 people, 85.5% of registered voters said they would vote in the upcoming election.

About 84% of eligible voters cast ballots in the August 2020 presidential election, according to data collection platform Statistica.

It added that the capital Minsk had the lowest turnout, “over 66%”.

However, Belarusians abroad can only participate in the elections by returning to the country and voting at regional polling stations.

Who is running against Lukashenko?

Four candidates have registered to run in Sunday’s election, according to the country’s Central Electoral Commission (CEC).

Oleg Gaidukevich, chairman of the Free Democratic Party, announced his participation in October’s elections, telling News Channel 1 that “there must be healthy competition and discussion.”

First Secretary of the Communist Party Central Committee Sergey Silankov will also participate in the vote.

Former MP Anna Kanapatskaya, who last ran in the 2020 presidential election, will run, with Republican Labor Party chairman Alexander Khizhnyak the final candidate.

However, Tatsiana Chulitskaya, a Belarusian scholar at the University of Vilnius in Lithuania, told Reuters that the four candidates did not criticize Lukashenko during the campaign.

“These people are not candidates in the normal sense of the word. They are just participating in this event. They are not competing against Lukashenko,” she said in a phone interview.

What happened in 2020?

After the August election, the Central Election Commission announced that Lukashenko was re-elected and received 80.1% of the vote, defeating opposition candidate Tsikhanouskaya.

However, some believe the tallies at polling stations did not match the official tally by the Central Election Commission, leading to claims of voter fraud spreading like wildfire and leading opposition groups and Western governments to accuse Lukashenko of stealing the election.

Large, largely peaceful protests broke out in Minsk over the election results, calling for Lukashenko to step down.

But protesters were met with a harsh police crackdown and mass arrests, Belarusian human rights group Viasna reported this week More than 3,270 people Convicted for participating in 2020 protests.

Additionally, the research team found that there are more than 1,200 political prisoners at home. Lukashenko released 23 political prisoners last week in what state media said was a humanitarian gesture apparently timed in the final days before the election.

Is there any backlash to this election?

Tsikhanouskaya called on the West to reject the “illegal” election on Day X.

She told BBC News the election was a “sham,” adding, “It was a military-style operation; a show put on by the regime to stay in power.”

But Tsikhanouskaya told Belarusians not to protest as they did during the last election, saying: “You have to stay safe until the moment is really possible.”

Meanwhile, the European Parliament passed a resolution on Wednesday rejecting the election results.

“Members of the European Parliament reiterate that they do not recognize Mr. Lukashenko as president and consider the entire Belarusian regime to be illegitimate, while expressing their unswerving support for the Belarusian people in their pursuit of democracy, freedom and human rights,” the European Parliament said in a statement.

Last week, former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said elections could not be free or fair in “an environment where censorship is ubiquitous and independent media no longer exists.”

He added that the United States condemned the Belarusian government’s attempts to “legitimize” the election.