MINSK (Reuters) – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was on track to win a seventh five-year term with 87.6% of the vote in Sunday’s election, according to an exit poll broadcast on state television.
Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has led the country since 1994. The United States and the European Union both said in the run-up to the election that it could not be free and fair because independent media are banned in Belarus and all leading opposition figures have been jailed or forced to flee abroad.
The electoral commission said turnout was 81.5% in the election, in which 6.9 million people were eligible to vote.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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