MINSK — Belarusians voted on Sunday for President Alexander Lukashenko’s seventh term, extending his three-decade autocratic rule. Lukashenko, a 70-year-old former collective farm boss, has been in power in reclusive, Moscow-allied Belarus since 1994. Speaking after voting in the capital Minsk, the self-proclaimed “dictator” dismissed criticism of his reign and stated that he may release political prisoners if they begged for a pardon. Lukashenko suppressed mass rallies against his rule after the previous election in 2020. He has now allowed Moscow to utilize Belarusian land to invade Ukraine in 2022. All of Lukashenko’s political opponents are either in prison—some imprisoned incommunicado—or in exile, along with hundreds of thousands of Belarusians who have emigrated since 2020

Exiled opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who stood against Lukashenko in 2020, called Sunday’s vote a “farce.” “What is happening in Belarus today is a farce,” she told reporters in Warsaw, labeling Lukashenko “a criminal who has seized power” and demanding the release of all political prisoners as well as free and fair elections. In a rambling press conference, Lukashenko described his country as a “brutal democracy” and stated, “We don’t put pressure on anyone, and we won’t silence anyone.” He also dismissed the idea of speaking with exiled opponents such as Tikhanovskaya. “What would I have to talk to them about?” he asked. He said exiles had made their own choices, adding that “we didn’t push anyone out of the country.” Thousands fled Belarus in 2020 and 2021 as authorities embarked on a huge crackdown, with more than 1,000 people now in prison.

Belarusians place a high value on ‘peace’. Lukashenko, who won the country’s first national election since independence from the Soviet Union at the age of 39, is widely regarded as a strongman. Critics of Lukashenko are prohibited in Belarus, and most people interviewed in Minsk and other towns expressed support for him. The other candidates running against Lukashenko were chosen to promote democracy.

In Minsk, 74-year-old pensioner Nadezhda Guzhalovskaya, who described herself as a “patriot,” voted for Lukashenko due to a lack of other options. “Maybe everything here is not perfect, we don’t have democracy,” said Guzhalovskaya. Irina Lebedeva, on the other hand, said that “thanks to our president, there is peace in this country,” repeating the government’s narrative, which also accuses 2020 street protest leaders of sowing chaos.

Belarus’ reliance on Russia has resulted in 300,000 Belarusians leaving the country since 2020, mostly to Poland and Lithuania. These individuals will be unable to vote due to Belarus’ ban on voting abroad. The Lukashenko administration has pardoned approximately 200 political prisoners in preparation for the election. However, former prisoners interviewed by AFP report that those released are closely monitored by security services.

Lukashenko’s relationship with the European Union and Moscow has deteriorated since 2020. The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, referred to the election as a “sham” and stated that “Lukashenko doesn’t have any legitimacy.” On Sunday, Lukashenko stated that it is a matter of taste whether other countries recognize the election results that he was planning to hand over to one of his three sons.

He said his youngest son Nikolai “could not imagine in his worst dream” that he could be president and “none of my sons could.”

The strongman, who has promoted a macho image of himself, believes that a woman should not lead Belarus. He believes that a woman cannot be a dictator, but there are many men who can be leaders.