Belarus' leader faces toughest challenge yet in Sunday vote

After 26 consecutive years in office, the autocratic leader of Belarus is confronting something unfamiliar as he tries to win a sixth term: circumstances beyond his control. Discontent over a worsening economy and his government's dismissive response to the coronavirus pandemic has helped fuel the country's largest opposition rallies since the collapse of the Soviet Union, when Alexander Lukashenko became independent Belarus's first and only elected president, so far. Rumblings among the ruling elite and a bitter rift with Russia, Belarus's main sponsor and ally, compound the reelection challenge facing the 65-year-old former state farm director on Sunday.