2025 Belarusian presidential election

2025 Belarusian presidential election
← 2020 26 January 2025
 
Nominee Alexander Lukashenko
Party Independent
Incumbent President

Alexander Lukashenko
Independent



Politics of Belarus

Commonwealth of Independent States CIS Member State

Constitution
Presidency
President
Alexander Lukashenko
Executive
Prime Minister
Roman Golovchenko
National Assembly
National Assembly
All-Belarusian People's Assembly
All-Belarusian People's Assembly
Judiciary
Administrative divisions
Elections
Presidential elections

Parliamentary elections

Foreign relations
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Minister: Sergei Aleinik
flag Belarus portal

Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in Belarus on 26 January 2025 under the terms of the constitution. The president is directly elected to serve a five-year term.

Background

Mass protests alleging widespread vote-rigging erupted after incumbent president Alexander Lukashenko was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election. Opposition figure Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya subsequently claimed to have won the election and went into exile.[1][2][3][4]

On 17 August 2020, Lukashenko stated that the next presidential election could be held earlier than 2025 if a new constitution were to be adopted.[5] Tsikhanouskaya stated that she was ready to lead a transitional government and to hold early elections under international supervision.[6][7] Lukashenko also said that he will resign if a new constitution is adopted.[8]

On 23 October 2024, the Central Election Commission of Belarus (CEC) announced that the election would be held on 26 January 2025.[9]

On 6 November 2024, the Viasna Human Rights Centre reported that Belarusian authorities had started a wave of arrests with over a hundred people detained in a week, many linked to online chats, at a time when Belarusian prisons were already overcrowded.[10]

Candidates

On 25 February 2024, the day of parliamentary elections, Alexander Lukashenko announced his intention to run for a seventh term in 2025.[11] His candidacy, which was submitted by an initiative group, was accepted by the CEC on 29 October. On the same day, the CEC rejected the candidacies of For Freedom movement leader Yuras Hubarevich, citing "violation of the procedure for submitting documents", and Aliaxandar Drazdou.[12] On 4 November, two more candidates were rejected, Diana Kovaleva and Viktor Kulesh, while three other candidates were allowed to begin collecting signatures to support their candidacies, thereby taking the number of candidates with this status to seven.[13] These include Sergei Syrankov of the Communist Party, Oleg Gaidukevich of the Liberal Democratic Party, and former Interior Ministry spokesperson Olga Chеmоdanova.[14] Following the early December deadline to get 100,000 signatures, the CEC said five candidates were approved to stand:[15][16][17]

Candidate Political party Current or former position Signatures

Alexander Lukashenko 		Independent President of Belarus (1994–present) 2,518,145

Oleg Gaidukevich 		Liberal Democratic Party of Belarus Leader of the LDPB (2019–present)
Deputy of the House of Representatives (2019–present) 		134,472
Sergei Syrankov Communist Party of Belarus First secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party 125,577

Hanna Kanapatskaya 		Independent Businesswoman 121,077
Alexander Khizhnyak Republican Party of Labour and Justice Leader of the RPTS 112,779

Opinion polls

Date Agency Viktar Babaryka Alexander Lukashenko Pavel Latushko Valery Tsepkalo Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya Syarhey Rumas Sergei Tikhanovsky Maria Kalesnikava Vladimir Makei Zianon Pazniak Andrey Dmitriyeu Anatol Liabedzka Vladimir Karanik Maxim Znak Veranika Tsapkala Natalya Kochanova Yury Karayeu Kirill Rudy [be] Ivonka Survilla Mikola Statkevich Paval Sieviaryniec Roman Golovchenko Oleg Gaidukevich Maksim Bogrecov
1–10 Nov 2021 Chatham House 19% 27% 4% 4% 6% 3% 3% 3%  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -
30% 30% 11% 8% 10% 5% 8% 8% 4%
23 Jul – 3 Aug 2021 Chatham House 22% 27% 4% 3% 6% 3% 2% 2% 1% 2% 2%  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  - 1%  -  -  -  -
33% 28% 10% 8% 13% 6% 7% 7% 2% 2% 3% 2%
20–30 Apr 2021 Chatham House 25% 23% 8% 3% 4% 3% 3% 2% 1% 1% 1%  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  - 2%  -  -  -  -
33% 25% 14% 9% 10% 8% 8% 8% 2% 2% 2% 4%
12 Jan – 8 Feb 2021 Ecoom 2.5% 66.5% 1.3%  - 1.5% 0.4%  -  - 2.4%  -  -  -  -  -  - 4.4%  -  -  -  -  - 3.8% 1.9%  -
14–20 Jan 2021 Chatham House 28.8% 27.4% 12.1% 3.7% 4.0% 4.3% 5.8% 4.2% 2.3% 1.3% 1.3% 0.1% 0.6% 0.3% 0.1% 0.4% 0.1%  -  - 2.1% 1.0%  -  -  -
35.3% 23.9% 18.3% 9.6% 11.2% 7.3% 8.6% 8.2% 4.4% 2.4% 2.1% 0.6% 1.3% 0.7% 0.8% 1.3% 1.1% 0.1% 4.2% 1.4% 0.4%
13–18 Nov 2020 Chatham House 31.7% 24.2% 14.2% 7.0% 6.2% 4.4% 3.3% 3.2% 1.7% 1.4% 1.0% 0.4% 0.4% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1% 0.0%  -  -  -  -  -
38.2% 20.8% 20.3% 12.1% 9.9% 7.2% 5.9% 7.5% 2.5% 2.4% 1.5% 0.7% 0.6% 0.7% 0.5% 1.2% 0.5% 0.4% 0.1%

See also

References

  1. ^ "Belarus' Lukashenko to Run for Seventh Presidential Term in 2025". Voice of America. 25 February 2024.
  2. ^ "Belarus election: Exiled leader calls weekend of 'peaceful rallies'". BBC News. 14 August 2020. Archived from the original on 19 August 2020. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  3. ^ "Belarus opposition candidate declares victory | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News". NHK. Archived from the original on 16 August 2020. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  4. ^ "Тихановская готовится объявить себя победительницей выборов в Беларуси – пресс-секретарь". Gordon. Archived from the original on 23 January 2022. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  5. ^ "Heckled And Jeered, Lukashenka Says New Election Could Be Held After Constitutional Changes". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 17 August 2020. Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  6. ^ Teslova, Elena (17 August 2020). "Belarus: Opposition leader says 'ready to lead country'" (PDF). Anadolu Ajansı. Archived from the original on 1 November 2020. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  7. ^ "Łukaszenka może liczyć już tylko na Putina". OKO Press. Archived from the original on 16 August 2020. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  8. ^ "Belarus president plans to leave job under new constitution". ABC News. 27 November 2020. Archived from the original on 19 January 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
  9. ^ "Belarus to Hold Next Presidential Election on Jan. 26". The Moscow Times. 23 October 2024. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  10. ^ "Belarus cracks down ahead of January election, over 100 people detained". The Kyiv Independent. 7 November 2024. Retrieved 7 November 2024.
  11. ^ "Лукашенко ответил на вопрос, пойдет ли на следующие президентские выборы". Belarusian Telegraph Agency (in Russian). 25 February 2024. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
  12. ^ "Belarus commission approves Lukashenko's 7th term bid but rejects opposition candidates". Associated Press. 30 October 2024.
  13. ^ "ЦИК Белоруссии допустил к сбору подписей семь претендентов в президенты". Kommersant (in Russian). 4 November 2024. Retrieved 4 November 2024.
  14. ^ "Belarus' authoritarian ruler will face only token challengers in presidential vote". Associated Press. 5 November 2024. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
  15. ^ Service, RFE/RL's Belarus. "5 Candidates Approved For Belarus Vote Lukashenka Seen Winning Easily". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved 26 December 2024.
  16. ^ "Election campaign-2025: CEC registered 5 candidates for President of Belarus". TV channel «Belarus 24». Retrieved 26 December 2024.
  17. ^ "The Central Election Commission of Belarus has published the list of candidates for the presidential election — Lukashenko is among them". babel.ua. 23 December 2024. Retrieved 26 December 2024.