Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko was sworn in for a seventh term on March 25 as human rights groups said the authoritarian leader’s rule was "unconstitutional."
Lukashenko won over 86 percent of the vote in the January 26 presidential election that was widely condemned as a sham by Western countries.
"They took place in conditions of a deep human rights crisis, in an atmosphere of total fear caused by repression against civil society, independent media, the opposition, and all dissenters,” said a joint statement by 10 Belarusian rights groups on March 25.
Lukashenko was sworn in during a ceremony in the capital, Minsk.
On the same day, hundreds of supporters of the Belarusian democratic opposition held rallies across Europe, including in Lithuania, Poland, and the Czech Republic, to mark the country’s Freedom Day.
March 25 marks the anniversary of the 1918 declaration of an independent Belarus and is traditionally celebrated by the Belarusian opposition, many of whom have fled into exile or been imprisoned by Lukashenko's regime.
In the January presidential election, which barred the presence of international media and Western observers, Lukashenko ran against four other candidates, all of whom supported his government and its policies.
Lukashenko, who has been in power for three decades, dismissed all criticism of the election, as did Russia, Minsk's closest ally.
In 2020, mass protests erupted after a disputed presidential election that extended Lukashenko's longstanding rule for another term.
The election was widely condemned as fraudulent by the United States, the European Union, and other international actors.
The protests, which demanded Lukashenko’s resignation, were met with mass arrests, alleged torture, and violent crackdowns that left several people dead.
