Lukashenko heads for massive win in Belarus election scorned by the West

A woman casts her ballot during the early voting in Belarus' presidential election at a polling station in Minsk, Belarus January 25, 2025. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina

(Reuters) -Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko was on track to extend his 31-year rule with a massive win in a presidential election on Sunday that Western governments rejected as a sham.

An exit poll broadcast on state TV projected that Lukashenko would take nearly 88% of the vote. The close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin had earlier defended his jailing of dissidents and declared: "I don't give a damn about the West."