Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko to stand for re-election in 2025

26/2/2024 11:58

        Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko said he would run for president again in 2025, Belarusian state news agency BelTA reported on Sunday.
        
        Lukashenko made his comments after voting in parliamentary and local council elections, denounced by the United States as a sham. The ex-Soviet state's top election official dismissed the criticism and told Washington to look after its own affairs.
        
        BelTA said Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, told journalists: "Tell them (the exiled opposition) that I'll run. No one, no responsible president would abandon his people who followed him into battle."
        
        Lukashenko, 69, is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest allies and allowed the Kremlin to use his country's territory to launch its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
        
        "We're still a year away from the presidential election. A lot of things can change," he said in response to a follow-up question, BelTA reported.
        
        "Naturally, I and all of us, society, will react to the changes that will take place in our society and the situation in which we will approach the elections in a year's time," Lukashenko said.
        
        The U.S. State Department condemned what it called the "sham" elections Belarus in on Sunday.