2020 Belarusian presidential election

The 2020 Belarusian presidential election was held in August 2020, and the electoral commission announced that the incumbent, Alexander Lukashenko, who had ruled since 1994, had won about 80 percent of the vote. Opposition candidates had been jailed or barred, and Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who ran after her husband was imprisoned, claimed to have won. The opposition, independent observers and many foreign governments, including the European Union, rejected the result as fraudulent. Huge peaceful protests spread across the country, and security forces responded with mass arrests, beatings and reports of torture. Tsikhanouskaya went into exile in Lithuania and became a leader of the opposition. Lukashenko stayed in power with Russian support, and the repression continued.

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