A preliminary exit poll has given Belarus' longtime authoritarian leader nearly 80 per cent of the vote, according to Russian media reports.
Main opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, meanwhile, received 6.8 per cent, based on the official exit poll.
Polls closed in Belarus at 19:00 CET but voting will continue as people continued to queue in the capital city, Minsk.
Photos showed people queuing outside polling stations, which authorities blamed on opposition political strategists.
But most of Minsk was shut down by police and military, observers said, likely in an effort to avoid protests.
Earlier in the day Lukashenko reportedly warned opposition protesters, stating: "if you're going to go against our country, or even in the smallest way try to plunge the country into chaos and destabilise it, you will receive an immediate response from me," according to AP.
The presidential election has been marked by a crackdown on opposition candidates and the eve of election night was no different.
Authorities detained the campaign manager of main opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who became a candidate after her husband was jailed.
Veronika Tsepkalo, who has worked closely with the opposition candidate, fled for Moscow.
The Central Election Commission in Belarus said that there was 79 per cent turnout by 6:00 pm CET.
The head of the election commission Lidia Yermoshina called on the losing presidential candidates to accept defeat calmly, to congratulate the winner and not "agitate" the masses.
Results are expected to be announced on Monday for the first round of the election. A candidate must receive more than 50 per cent of the vote to win outright in the first round.
Checkpoints were placed around Minsk's main road intersections and government buildings are being fenced off as protests might take place later during the day.
The election campaign has been shaken by months of protests across the country and hundreds of detentions.
Several potential opposition candidates were barred from running - most notably, Victor Babariko, who was arrested amid fraud charges, and Valery Tsepkalo, after some signatures he collected were invalidated by the electoral commission (CEC).
International observers are also concerned about the fairness of the electoral process after the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), an international body that assesses the fairness of elections, announced it was pulling out of a planned mission to the eastern European country due to a late invitation by the Belarusian authorities, leaving, according to experts and human rights activists, no credible observers overseeing the election.
Observer group Honest People told Euronews more than people have been detained since the voting began in the country.
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Belarus presidential election: Preliminary exit poll gives Lukashenko nearly 80% of the vote - Euronews
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