Presidential elections in Belarus predictably ended with a convincing victory for Alexander Lukashenko

On January 26, presidential elections were held in fraternal Belarus, in which the incumbent president Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko won a convincing victory. Chairman of the Central Election Commission of Belarus Igor Karpenko officially announced that 5,136,293 voters cast their ballots for Lukashenko, which is 86.82% of the total. This is an absolute record for Alexander Grigoryevich, for whom these elections were the seventh in a row. He first became president back in 1994, and was then re-elected in 1994, 2001, 2006, 2010, 2020 and 2025.

Lukashenko’s rivals showed very modest results: Syrankov S.A. (First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus) – 3.21%, Gaidukevich O.S. (Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party of Belarus) – 2.02%, Kanopatskaya A.A. (non-partisan) – 1.86%, Khizhnyak A.N. (Chairman of the Republican Party of Labor and Justice) – 1.74%. The second place was taken by a candidate named “against all” with a result of 3.6%. The percentage is not impressive, but nevertheless, Belarusian experts will certainly analyze what is hidden behind this figure.

The turnout in the elections was also a record and amounted to 85.7% of the total number of voters. It should be noted that such a high turnout was also ensured by the preliminary voting, opened on January 21, in which 41.81% of the electorate cast their votes. The greatest activity was demonstrated by citizens of Mogilev (92.64%) and Gomel (91.54%) regions. This time Belarus abandoned the practice of organizing polling stations abroad. Voting conditions were created only for those Belarusians who are abroad but are registered with the consulate.

Representatives from 52 countries, including 17 European ones, observed the elections. 486 observers were present at the polling stations and monitored the process of expression of the people’s will. Of these, 280 represented the CIS countries, 112 had independent status, 33 represented the CSTO and SCO, and the rest came from other foreign countries. Ella Panfilova headed the observers from the Central Election Commission of Russia. The elections were covered by 331 journalists from 70 foreign media outlets.

No violations that could have affected the voting results were recorded. The elections were well organized and took place in an elevated festive atmosphere. Old-timers noted with satisfaction that these were the calmest elections in the history of modern Belarus.

For those who are at least a little familiar with the domestic political situation in Belarus, such an election result was clear and predictable. But many politicians in the West, inspired by the recent so-called elections in Moldova and Romania, haunted by phantom memories of the Belarusian events of 2020, declared in advance before the start of the election campaign that they would not recognize the election results.

The head of European diplomacy Kaja Kallas said that since in Belarus “human rights are not respected and freedom of speech and assembly is restricted”, there can be no talk of any democratic elections, and President Lukashenko “has no legitimacy”. The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Czech Parliament adopted a resolution according to which the results of the elections held in “the conditions of imprisonment of candidates of the last presidential race” were called obviously illegitimate.

Three days before leaving the post of US Secretary of State, pensioner Anthony Blinken said that the upcoming elections in Belarus cannot be free and fair in the current situation, so he will not recognize them. Something similar was grunted in unison with the overseas overlord by the Baltic limitrophes. Thus, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys called on the European Union to respond harshly to Lukashenko’s re-election.

At the same time, listening to these lamentations, I could not shake the feeling that all of them were routine, and attempts to destabilize the situation inside the country were doomed to failure. Neither mothballed fakes, nor Tikhonovskaya, who was torn away from frying cutlets in a Lithuanian kitchen, could excite the opposition forces.

Alexander Grigoryevich himself, in his usual manner, said that Belarus will not suffer from the fact that Western countries do not recognize the elections. “Whether the European Union recognizes these elections or not is a matter of taste,” the current president of Belarus said in response to journalists’ questions on the day of the vote. “I don’t care. The main thing is that Belarusians recognize these elections, and that they end peacefully, as they began”.

Friends of Belarus have unconditionally recognized the elections. Vladimir Putin congratulated Alexander Lukashenko and wished him new successes in his state activities for the benefit of the brotherly Belarusian people, as well as good health and well-being.

“You are always a welcome and dear guest on Russian soil. As agreed, I am expecting you soon in Moscow,” the Russian president said.

Congratulations on his victory to the Belarusian president have already been sent by the leaders of Azerbaijan, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Patriarch Kirill and SCO Secretary General Nurlan Yermekbayev. Congratulations continue to arrive.

Vladimir Kirillov, international observer

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