Longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko is set to win a seventh term without serious challenger opposition.

Polls are underway for Belarus’ presidential election, long-time leader Alexander Lukashenko It is expected to extend his more than three decades in power without any real opposition.

There have been massive protests against his government since Lukashenko opened the ballot at 8:00am local time (GMT) in 2020 , and allow Moscow to use Belarusian territory in a 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The 70-year-old former collective farm boss has been in power in Belarus since 1994. Seeking seventh semester.

The country’s last presidential election in 2020 ended with nationwide protests unprecedented in the history of the country of nine million people. The opposition and Western countries accuse Lukashenko of rigging the election and imposing sanctions.

In response, his government launched a sweeping crackdown that resulted in the imprisonment of more than 1,000 people, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, Viasna Center for Human Rights the founder of.

The United Nations estimates that some 300,000 Belarusians have left the country since 2020 – mainly Poland and Lithuania. They will not be able to vote, with Belarus canceling votes abroad.

“All our opponents and enemies should understand: no, we will never repeat what happened in 2020,” Lukashenko told a stadium in Minsk during a ceremony on Friday.

europe’s last dictator

Lukashenko’s iron-fisted rule, which began two years after the fall of the Soviet Union, has earned him the nickname “Europe’s last dictator” – which he encompasses – relying on subsidies and political support from Russia’s close allies.

Four candidates against Lukashenko were chosen to give the election a democratic feel, and few knew who they were. They were loyal to him and praised his rule.

Communist candidate Sergei Syrankov said: “I am not running in the race, but with Lukashenko, and I am ready to serve as his vanguard.”

Alexander Khizhnyak, head of the Republican Labor and Justice party, led voting rights in Minsk in 2020 and pledged to prevent “a repeat of the riots”.

The head of the Liberal Democratic Party, Oleg Gaidukevich, endorsed Lukashenko in 2020 and urged the candidate to “sicken Lukashenko’s enemies.”

The fourth challenger, Hanna Kanapatskaya, who actually received 1.7% of the vote in 2020 and said she was the “only democratic alternative to Lukashenko,” is expected to lobby Release political prisoners but warn supporters against “over-initiative”.

Top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas called the election a “sham” in a post on X, saying “Lukashenko has no legitimacy whatsoever”.