Belarus will hold a presidential election in January 2025 and the incumbent, President Alexander Lukashenko, will seek a seventh term in office, state news Belta reported on Wednesday.
The decision to hold the vote on Jan. 26 was made at a meeting of the House of Representatives, the lower house of parliament.
In February, Lukashenko, who won a sixth term in 2020 and has been in power since 1994, said he will seek a seventh term.
"I will run (for president). Tell this to them (the Belarusian opposition in exile)," Lukashenko told reporters at the time after voting in parliamentary and local elections. "Not a single person, a responsible president, will abandon his people who followed him into battle and this is very important for me."