The smiling face of President Alexander Lukashenko gazed out from campaign posters across Belarus on Sunday as the country held an orchestrated election virtually guaranteed to give the 70-year-old autocrat yet another term on top of his three decades in power.

The EU and the US both said they did not acknowledge him as the legitimate leader of Belarus after he used his security forces to crush mass protests after the last election in 2020, when Western governments backed Tsikhanouskaya's claim that he had falsified the results to cheat her of victory.

MINSK - Alexander Lukashenko has won the presidential election of Belarus, receiving 86.82 percent of the vote, according to the preliminary results released early Monday by the country's Central Election Commission. Under Belarusian law, a presidential candidate who secures more than 50 percent of the vote is declared the winner.