Following an official invitation from Belarus's Foreign Ministry, ODIHR deployed an election observation mission on 15 November to observe the 19 December presidential election.

Headed by Ambassador Geert-Hinrich Ahrens of Germany, the mission included 14 international staff based in Minsk drawn from 13 OSCE participating States and 40 long-term observers who were deployed throughout the country. In total, there were 452 short-term observers, including over 340 seconded by 44 OSCE participating States.

According to the mission's final report: "The presidential election indicated that Belarus has a considerable way to go in meeting its OSCE commitments for democratic elections. There was a lack of independence and impartiality of the election administration, an uneven playing field and a restrictive media environment, as well as a continuous lack of transparency at key stages of the electoral process. Election night was marred by detentions of most presidential candidates, and hundreds of citizens, among them journalists, human rights activists and other civil society representatives. Belarusian authorities explained at the time that a number of participants in 'unsanctioned activities' have been sentenced by the courts to administrative arrests and fines, in addition to which criminal proceedings have been instituted under the title of 'mass disturbances'. Meanwhile, most detainees were released, yet dozens of them, including three former presidential candidates continue to be detained at the time of writing this report. One former presidential candidate has been placed under house arrest. Overall, these circumstances undermined confidence in the election."

For election-day observation, the OSCE/ODIHR election observation mission joined efforts with a delegation of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.