The self-proclaimed President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has taken office for the seventh consecutive term. The inauguration ceremony took place in the Hall of Ceremonies of the Palace of Independence in Minsk, attended by more than 1,100 guests.
This is reported by Belarusian media.
The Chairman of the Central Election Commission, Igor Karpenko, officially announced Lukashenko's inauguration, emphasizing that "the elections were held in a democratic environment and complied with the law."
In the January 26 elections, 5,136,293 people (86.82%) allegedly voted for Lukashenko. The CEC approved the results on February 3. The new presidential term will be his seventh in a row.
The first presidential elections in Belarus were held on June 23, 1994. According to the results of the first round, the majority of the votes were won by Alexander Lukashenko and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the republic, Vyacheslav Kebych. On July 10, in the second round, Lukashenko won, receiving the support of 80.34% of voters, while Vyacheslav Kebych received 14.17%. Alexander Lukashenko took office as President of Belarus at the age of 39. At the moment, he is the first and only president of the country for almost 30 years.
The results of the 2020 presidential election in Belarus, which Lukashenko officially won, were widely criticized as fraudulent. This sparked the largest mass protests of his reign, which ultimately did not bring any significant results for the opposition.
We remind you that Belarus has begun testing the combat readiness of the country's Armed Forces.