MINSK: Long-serving Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko won a sixth term with 80.23 percent of the vote, the central electoral commission said Monday, after police cracked down on opposition protesters.
Central electoral commission chief Lidia Yermoshina said in televised comments that the strongman's main challenger Svetlana Tikhanovskaya won 9.9 percent, citing a preliminary count.
The other three candidates each won less than two percent, Yermoshina said.
The announcement came after police broke up crowds of protesters with stun grenades and rubber bullets in Minsk and other cities on Sunday evening after an exit poll showed Lukashenko winning an overwhelming victory.
Tikhanovskaya, a 37-year-old stay-at-home mother and political novice, galvanised the opposition during the election campaign, attracting tens of thousands of supporters to the ex-Soviet country's biggest demonstrations in years.
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