The E.U. has called Sunday’s election a sham. Lukashenko, running virtually unopposed, said he was “too busy” to even campaign.

The smiling face of President Alexander Lukashenko gazed out from campaign posters across Belarus on Sunday as the country held an orchestrated election virtually guaranteed to give the 70-year-old autocrat yet another term on top of his three decades in power.

Belarusians began voting Sunday, with President Alexander Lukashenko expected to cruise to victory unchallenged for a seventh term, prolonging his three-decade authoritarian rule. Lukashenko, a 70-year-old former collective farm boss, has been in power in reclusive, Moscow-allied Belarus since 1994.