The smiling face of President Alexander Lukashenko gazed out from campaign posters across Belarus on Sunday as the country held an orchestrated election virtually guaranteed to give the 70-year-old autocrat yet another term on top of his three decades in power.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko was on track to win a seventh five-year term with 87.6% of the vote in Sunday's election, according to an exit poll broadcast on state television.

Alexander Lukashenko, the strongman who has ruled Belarus for three decades, secured a seventh term in power following an election on Sunday in which he faced no real competition. State media reported that 70-year-old Lukashenko,