The E.U. has called the election a sham, and President Alexander Lukashenko has said he’s “too busy” to even campaign.

NBC News’ Yasmin Vossoughian reports on questions surrounding the legitimacy of the Belarus presidential election as Lukashenko tightens his grip on power.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko has pardoned another 15 prisoners shortly before the country's presidential election this weekend, state media reported on Friday. The state news agency BelTa reported that the released prisoners include eight who are serving sentences for extremism,

President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, a close ally of Russia’s leader, Vladimir V. Putin, has been making signs of reaching out to the West. He is all but certain to win an election on Sunday.

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.

A close ally of Vladimir Putin, Lukashenko has been nicknamed Europe’s last dictator, and has brutally cracked down on opposition figures and made the country a key staging ground for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Among the many dissident leaders now in exile is Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, whose husband remains in prison in Belarus.

Representatives of all CIS countries, except Armenia, Moldova, and Ukraine, participated in the presidential elections in Belarus as observers. This was announced at a press conference by the head of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) observer mission, Sergey Lebedev, TASS reports.

As opposition-minded Belarusians will tell you, the country's presidential election on January 26 isn't a real election. Independent media has be

MINSK, January 28. /TASS/. The presidential election in Belarus was carried out at a high standard, smoothly, contrary to what some in the West had predicted, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said during a meeting with the Pan-African Parliament delegation.

Canada said on Monday it would impose sanctions on 10 individuals and 12 entities in Belarus, citing what it called "gross and systematic human rights violations" by Minsk.

Belarusian leader and Russian ally Alexander Lukashenko extended his 31-year rule on Monday after electoral officials declared him the winner of a presidential election Western governments rejected as a sham.

The E.U. has called Sunday’s election a sham. Lukashenko, running virtually unopposed, said he was “too busy” to even campaign.