MINSK - Early voting for the Belarusian presidential elections began on Tuesday and will run through Saturday.

Early voting starts at noon (0900 GMT) and closes at 7 pm (1600 GMT) each day, before voting on election day takes place on Sunday from 8 am (0500 GMT) to 8 pm (1700 GMT).

The Central Election Commission has organized 5,325 polling stations. The number of voters stands at about 6.9 million.

Five candidates -- sitting President Alexander Lukashenko, Chairman of the Republican Party of Labor and Justice Alexander Khizhnyak, Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party of Belarus Oleg Gaidukevich, entrepreneur Anna Kanopatskaya, and First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus Sergei Syrankov, have been registered for the elections.