Preliminary results from Belarus's Sunday referendum vote showed 77.3 percent of the registered voters backed President Alexander Lukashenko's proposal to remove a constitutional provision limiting him to two terms, the electoral commission chief said early Monday.

Lidiya Ermoshina, head of the Central Election Commission, said Lukashenko "was supported by 77.3 percent of all the registered voters" to serve a third term in office.

Lukashenko was elected Belarusian president on July 10, 1994, after garnering more than 80 percent of the votes. His five-year term was extended to 2001 following a 1996 referendum.

He was re-elected for another five years in the 2001 presidential election.

Source:Xinhua