Lukashenko secures 7th term as president of Belarus

Alexander Lukashenko has been reelected the president of Belarus, winning a 7th five-year term, according to the preliminary results from the Central Election Commission that were cited by the state news agency Belta on Monday.

The commission said Lukashenko won 86.82% of the vote in the presidential election held on Sunday.

His closest rival, Sergei Syrankov, received 3.21%, followed by Oleg Gaidukevich with 2.02%, Anna Kanopatskaya with 1.86%, and Alexander Khizhnyak with 1.74%.

Under Belarusian law, a candidate must secure over 50% of the vote to win the presidency.

The election commission is expected to release final results by Feb. 5.

Just over 6.9 million citizens were eligible to vote in the election, and early voting took place on Jan. 21-25.

According to Igor Karpenko, the commission's chairman, nearly 500 international observers were accredited to monitor the vote.

Lukashenko has been in office since winning the country's first presidential election in 1994.