Longtime Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has been declared winner of a disputed presidential election, securing a seventh straight term, according to the country’s electoral body.

Lukashenko, whose four opponents on the ballot were loyal to him and praised his 30-year rule, took 86.8 percent of the vote, according to initial results published by the Central Election Commission on its official Telegram account on Monday.

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“You can congratulate the Republic of Belarus, we have elected a president,” Igor Karpenko, head of the commission, told a news conference.

Election officials said turnout in Sunday’s vote was 85.7 percent, with about 6.9 million people eligible to vote.

The Belarusian leader has won every presidential election since 1994, in polls that his opponents, Western governments and rights groups rejected as a “sham”.

‘Convincing victory’

But Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Lukashenko, saying the election showed he had the “undoubted” backing of the people.

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“Your convincing victory in the election clearly testifies to your high political authority and to the undoubted support of the population for the state policy Belarus is pursuing,” Putin said, according to a statement by the Kremlin.

“You are always a welcome and dear guest on Russian soil. As agreed, I look forward to seeing you soon in Moscow.”

The war in Ukraine has bound Lukashenko more tightly than ever to Putin, and Russian tactical nuclear weapons are now deployed in Belarus.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping also congratulated Lukashenko, Beijing’s state media reported.

“Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message to Lukashenko on his re-election as President of Belarus,” state news agency Xinhua said.

‘No choice’

Other politicians, especially those in Europe, said the vote was neither free nor fair because independent media were banned in the country and all leading opposition figures had either been jailed or forced to seek exile abroad.

“The people of Belarus had no choice. It is a bitter day for all those who long for freedom and democracy,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock posted on X.

“Over 1,200 people in Belarus remain innocently imprisoned simply because they had the courage to speak out.”

The country’s last presidential election in 2020 ended with nationwide protests, unprecedented in the history of the country of nine million people. The opposition and Western nations accused Lukashenko of rigging the election and imposed sanctions.

In response, his government launched a sweeping crackdown, leaving more than 1,000 people imprisoned, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, founder of the Viasna Human Rights Centre.

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Asked about the jailing of his opponents, Lukashenko told a news conference on Sunday that they had chosen their own fate.

“Some chose prison, some chose exile, as you say. We didn’t kick anyone out of the country,” he told a rambling news conference that lasted more than four hours.

Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told the Reuters news agency Lukashenko engineered his re-election as part of a “ritual for dictators”.