Belarus is on the brink of extending the 30-year rule of its authoritarian leader, President Alexander Lukashenko, who is poised to secure a seventh term in a presidential election slated for January 2025.

Five years since the harsh crackdown on protestors after the 2020 election, critics are readying themselves for Belarus' election in January.

Belarusians go to the polls this weekend to vote in a presidential election that is almost certain to see incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko returned to office for a seventh term. The country was rocked by the largest mass protests since independence in the massively falsified previous elections in August 2020,

Five candidates' names will appear on the ballot for a presidential election in Belarus on Sunday, but for the past 31 years there has only been one winner. In power since 1994, Alexander Lukashenko is assured of a new five-year term in a vote that the exiled opposition describes as a sham.