Belarusian authorities say more than half of the country’s voters approved constitutional reforms that would allow its authoritarian leader to stay in power until 2035 and open the way for stronger military co-operation with Russia, while the Belarusian opposition denounced the vote as a sham.
The referendum on the reforms took place Sunday, several days after Belarus’ closest ally, Russia, invaded its neighbour, Ukraine. Moscow deployed forces to Belarusian territory weeks earlier under the pretext of joint military drills and then sent them rolling into Ukraine as part of a devastating attack that began last Thursday.
Belarus’ Central Election Commission said
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