Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power for over 30 years, is poised to extend his rule in an election that concludes Sunday and that the opposition dismisses as a farce.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko attends a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council at the Igora resort in the Leningrad region, Russia, December 26, 2024. Sputnik/Alexei Danichev/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo (Reuters) - Five candidates' names will appear on the ballot for a presidential election in Belarus on Sunday,

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko pardoned 15 prisoners on Friday in what state media called a humanitarian gesture, two days before an election in which he is set to further extend his 31-year rule.

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

The presidential election in Belarus will be a landmark event for many people far beyond the Commonwealth of Independent States, CIS Secretary General and head of the CIS observation mission at Belarus' presidential election Sergei Lebedev said at a meeting of the CIS Advisory Council of Heads of Electoral Bodies,