Longtime Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko won Sunday's presidential election with 79.7 percent of the vote, according to the official exit poll, after a tense campaign that saw a woman opposition candidate posing a historic challenge.

Lukashenko wins Belarus presidential vote with 79.7%: Official exit poll

The 37-year-old mother of two had been receiving threats over her decision to run in the elections, which forced her to send her children out of the country

Who is the woman challenging Belarus' President Lukashenko | Svetlana Tikhanavskaya

A rally-concert on the evening of 30 July attracted a massive crowd of 63,000 people to Friendship Park on the outskirts of Minsk to support Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the opposition's only remaining candidate in the Belarusian presidential race.

Belarus: 37-yr-old woman to take on president in polls

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the only remaining opposition candidate in the Belarusian presidential race