Lukashenko heads for massive win in Belarus election scorned by the West | U.S. & World [Video]

By Mark Trevelyan

(Reuters) -Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko was on track to extend his 31-year rule with a massive win in a presidential election on Sunday that Western governments rejected as a sham.

An exit poll broadcast on state TV projected that Lukashenko would take nearly 88% of the vote. The close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin had earlier defended his jailing of dissidents and declared: “I don’t give a damn about the West.”

European politicians said the vote was neither free nor fair because independent media are banned in the former Soviet state and all leading opposition figures have been sent to penal colonies or forced to flee abroad.

“The people of Belarus had no choice. It is a bitter day for all those who long for freedom & democracy,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock posted on X.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski expressed mock surprise that “only” 87.6% of the …