section_path: Abstract
section_name: Abstract
paragraph_text: Presidential elections were held in Belarus on 26 January 2025. The president is directly elected to serve a five-year term.
  
  Incumbent president Alexander Lukashenko has won every presidential election since 1994, with all but the first being deemed by international monitors as neither free nor fair. Prior to the elections, independent media was closed down or forced to operate from abroad. Aside from Lukashenko, there were four candidates on the ballot. Three of them represented pro-government parties. The fourth candidate, Hanna Kanapatskaya, was the only formally independent candidate, but opposition figures accused her of being a stooge, which her supporters have denied.
  
  Following exit poll results indicating Lukashenko's decisive victory, the election was described as a sham by critics. Lukashenko faced no serious challenge on the ballot from the other candidates and received over 87% of the vote.