Belarus holds presidential elections

Belarus is voting in elections to decide if President Alexander Lukashenko is to be returned to office.

Lukashenko, an autocratic, energetic leader pilloried by the West, is widely expected to win, despite an increasingly strong challenge from trade union leader Vladimir Goncharik.

Opposition supporters have predicted widespread vote fraud. Lukashenko is keen to reunite his nation with Russia.

Tensions in the former Soviet republic of 10 million between Russia and Poland have soared in the run-up to the vote.

Police have raided independent media and Goncharik's campaign offices and accusations have surfaced by former police agents that Lukashenko's government sponsored death squads to remove his critics.

Lukashenko, a 47-year-old former collective farm boss, has denounced the accusations and denies pressurising his opponents.

In an appeal on state television, Lukashenko boasted of establishing "a strong effective state power" following the turmoil that accompanied the 1991 Soviet collapse.

It is Lukashenko's first electoral test since 1996, when he pushed through a referendum that extended his five-year term by two years in a vote most Western governments refused to recognise.

Yet Lukashenko remains popular for his efforts to hold together the Soviet-era social safety net and his defiance of the West.

Lukashenko promises to boost wages and the farming and industrial sector. He has also pushed for a full merger with Russia, instead of the loose union between the two that exists now. Russia is more cautious about the plan.