As the election in Belarus is labelled a “sham”, Hanna Liubakova joins Emma Nelson to discuss what lies ahead for Alexander Lukashenko and the country.

In an interview with Reuters at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Tsikhanouskaya condemned the election ... "What in the democratic world you call elections has nothing in common with this event in Belarus. Because it's mostly like a ritual for dictators ...

Participation in the presidential election has an impact on Belarus' economic growth, Director of the Institute of Economics of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Denis Mukha told BelTA at the Central Election Commission Information Center on 26 January.

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.

Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya criticizes Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's pre-election release of political prisoners as a deceitful tactic to appeal to the West. She urges the cessation of repression and the release of all prisoners,

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.

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Since the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, opened on the same day as Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th president in the USA, the news coverage of the WEF annual meeting 2025 under the theme 'Collaboration in the Intelligent Age' was less than it otherwise would have been.

"All necessary conditions and a calm environment were created for the voters, so that they could cast their votes without any coercion,” Maksim Ryzhenkov said.

Having visited the polling stations, I can say that people make informed choices, independent observer, former member of Spain's Congress of Deputies Angeles Maestro said.