Belarus election: how ‘Europe’s last dictator’ held onto power as his opponents were jailed or exiled

By Stephen Hall, Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Russian and Post-Soviet Politics, University of Bath

The acclamation of Alexander Lukashenko as Belarus president for a seventh straight term was confirmed on January 26. The electoral authorities announced that the man known as “Europe’s last dictator” – the only president the country has had since it held its first “democratic” election in 1994 – had won 87% of the vote.

Most western leaders have dismissed the result as a “sham”.…

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