Belarus heads to polls in tightly controlled elections opposition have called a ‘farce’

President Alexander Lukashenko’s crackdown on dissent has continued as many forced into early votes

Polls have opened in Belarus’s tightly controlled parliamentary and local elections that are expected to cement the rule of the country’s authoritarian leader, despite calls for a boycott from the opposition, which dismissed the balloting as a “senseless farce”.

Alexander Lukashenko, the president who has ruled Belarus with an iron hand for nearly 30 years, accuses the west of trying to use the vote to undermine his government and “destabilise” the country of 9.5 million people.