Belarus has more than 1,000 political prisoners, many of them detained during the mass protests that erupted after Lukashenko’s contentious re-election in 2020

With many of his political opponents either jailed or exiled abroad, the 70-year-old Lukashenko is back on the ballot, and when the election concludes on Sunday, he is all but certain to add a seventh term as the only leader most people in post-Soviet Belarus have ever known.

Belarus' upcoming election, advanced from 2025, sees Alexander Lukashenko poised for a seventh term amidst a harsh suppression of dissent since 2020. Relying heavily on Russian support and hosting Russian tactical nuclear weapons,