Alexander Lukashenko, Europe’s longest-serving leader, has extended his 31-year rule in Belarus after being declared the winner of a presidential election that his exiled opponents and Western countries have denounced as a sham.

Having visited the polling stations, I can say that people make informed choices, independent observer, former member of Spain's Congress of Deputies Angeles Maestro said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko has awarded himself a seventh term as president of Belarus, with the West calling the so-called vote a sham and introducing additional sanctions. Belarusian political observer Artsiom Shraibman told the Kyiv Independent that Lukashenko faces uncertain future after the vote.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, taking two hours to address the media at a press conference on election day, spoke at length about US President Donald Trump, Belarusian fears of being annexed by Russia and Europe's ties to Washington.

As an East African bloc urged an immediate ceasefire in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwandan-backed M23 rebels who seized the city of Goma extended their advance on Wednesday, and Congo said it planned a campaign to recover lost territory.

Belarus is a buffer state. That is the geography, and there is no escaping it. But Belarus is not just a buffer. Our country is a geopolitical buffer in the center of Europe. We are exactly on the rift of two worlds.

By Andrew Higgins Europe’s longest-serving leader, President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus, cruised to his seventh election victory in a row on Sunday in a contest that his exiled opponents ...

Belarus under Lukashenko has become embroiled in the battle between NATO-backed Western Europe and Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Meanwhile, Belarus’ record on human rights – and its complicity in Russia’s war in Ukraine – have led to extensive sanctions and diplomatic isolation of the Eastern European nation, worsening the life of its people.

Canada said on Monday it would impose sanctions on 10 individuals and 12 entities in Belarus, citing what it called "gross and systematic human rights violations" by Minsk.

Last week, a man at an automobile plant said that he hadn’t been following an election campaign very closely because he’d been busy. This wasn’t a clichéd vox pop with a disaffected heartland voter, but rather a comment made by Alexander Lukashenko,

Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko has been in power for more than 30 years and just won another election widely regarded as rigged. Why are the streets of Minsk quiet? Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya,