Alexander Lukashenko wins Belarus presidential polls with 80% votes: Official

Election officials in Belarus said Monday that the country's longtime authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko has won his sixth consecutive presidential term, taking over 80% of the votes.

Human rights groups said one person was killed and dozens were injured in a police crackdown on protests that followed Sunday's vote.

The country's central election commission announced on Monday that all the ballots have been counted and Lukashenko took 80.23% of the votes, while his main opposition challenger Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya had only 9.9%.

The announcement may exacerbate tensions with opposition supporters, who believe the results of the vote were rigged and plan to gather in Minsk for more protests on Monday evening.

Thousands of people took to the streets in a number of Belarusian cities and towns on Sunday night, protesting the early count suggesting Lukashenko's landslide victory.

Tsikhanouskaya, a former English teacher and political novice, rejected the official figures, saying "I will believe my own eyes — the majority was for us."

Her supporters quickly took to the streets of the capital to protest what they saw as official manipulation of the vote.

They faced rows of riot police in black uniforms who moved quickly to disperse the demonstrators, firing flash-bang grenades and beating them with truncheons.

The brutal crackdown followed a tense campaign that saw massive rallies against Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet nation with an iron fist for 26 years. Lukashenko has not yet commented on the election results or the protests.

Several other cities across the country saw similar crackdowns on protesters.

On Monday morning, Belarus' Investigative Committee opened a criminal probe into mass riots and violence toward police officers.