AKIPRESS.COM - Alexander Lukashenko has won a fifth term as president of Belarus with a landslide victory that could see an easing of relations with the west and raise questions about his ties to Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Lukashenko won 83.5% of the vote, the central election commission said on Sunday, slightly more than the 80% he won in the 2010 elections.

Turnout was 86.75%, the commission added.

Lukashenko’s criticism of Russia’s annexation of the Crimea peninsula in Ukraine last year, his hosting of Ukraine peace talks and his pardoning of six opposition leaders in August suggest he is seeking to improve his image in the west, observers say.

The EU will lift its sanctions on Belarus, including those on Lukashenko, for four months after Sunday’s vote, barring any last-minute crackdown, diplomatic sources told The Guardian on Friday.

Previous elections in Belarus were considered unfair by western observers and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which is monitoring Sunday’s vote, said in September the ballot represented a “pivotal moment” for Belarus to demonstrate a willingness to hold free and fair elections.