Final votes are still being counted, and the result isn't expected to be released until later on Monday, but state television predicted Lukashenko would win with almost 88% of the vote.
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00:00The European Union has threatened new sanctions on Belarus after President Alexander Lukashenko
00:07looked certain to score his seventh consecutive election win since 1994.
00:13Foreign Policy Chief Kaya Kalas released a joint statement with Enlargement Commissioner
00:17Marta Kos, slamming the sham election.
00:20The relentless and unprecedented repression of human rights have deprived the electoral
00:24process of any legitimacy, the statement said.
00:28They didn't give any more details about what the eventual new sanctions package would target
00:33or when it would be implemented.
00:35Final votes are still being counted and the result is expected to be announced later on
00:39Monday.
00:40But state television said on Sunday that Lukashenko was on course to take almost 88% of the vote.
00:47His 2020 election win was also dismissed as a sham by the West and the result sparked
00:52weeks of widespread protests across the country.
00:55That prompted a brutal crackdown by security forces and led to 65,000 arrests.
01:01Belarus is holding an estimated 1,200 political prisoners.
01:06Since July, Lukashenko has released around 250 that rights activists say were jailed
01:11for political reasons.
01:25But it's unlikely that the condemnation from Western leaders or the threatened EU sanctions
01:37will make much of a difference to Lukashenko.
01:40I don't give a damn about the West, he told the press in Minsk.