Vladimir Putin ally reinstated as Belarusian prez

President Alexander Lukashenko

Belarusian authorities on Monday announced preliminary results from parliamentary and local elections in which only candidates loyal to the country's authoritarian leader were allowed to compete and that the opposition called on voters to boycott.

The vote further cemented the 30-year rule of President Alexander Lukashenko, who declared his intention to seek yet another five-year term in a presidential election next year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday congratulated Lukashenko on "the confident victory of patriotic forces of Belarus" that helped "ensure internal political stability".

Sunday's balloting was the first in Belarus since the contentious 2020 vote that handed Lukashenko his sixth term in office and triggered an unprecedented wave of mass demonstrations that brought hundreds of thousands into the streets. More than 35,000 people were arrested, thousands were beaten in police custody and hundreds of independent media outlets and nongovernmental organizations were shut down and outlawed.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever