Belarus opposition leader’s aide flees country on election polling day

Although there are four candidates other than Mr Lukashenko on the ballot, the opposition has coalesced around one: Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the wife of a jailed opposition blogger.

Eight staff members for the main challenger to the authoritarian leader of Belarus have reportedly been detained by police and one of the campaign’s leading figures has fled the country as it votes in a presidential election.

The election pits President Alexander Lukashenko, who has held an iron grip on the ex-Soviet nation since 1994, against four others in an atmosphere charged with wide public dismay over the country’s deteriorating economy, political repression and Mr Lukashenko’s dismissal of the coronavirus threat.