Alexander Lukashenko, Europe’s longest-serving leader, has extended his 31-year rule in Belarus after being declared the winner of a presidential election that his exiled opponents and Western countries have denounced as a sham.

Belarus on Sunday held an orchestrated election virtually guaranteed to give its 70-year-old autocrat, Alexander Lukashenko, yet another presidential term on top of his three decades in power.

Many Western leaders are decrying Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's re-election victory Sunday, calling it a sham along with the country's opposition.

Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet state for 31 years, held a four-hour press conference musing that some of his opponents "chose prison", after winning 88 per cent of the vote.

Victory “demonstrates your high political authority,” the Kremlin chief gushes about his counterpart in Minsk.

MINSK: Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko was on track to extend his 31 year rule with 87.6 percent of the vote in a presidential election on Sunday (Jan 26), according to an exit

Opposition leader-in-exile Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya labeled Lukashenko’s successful reelection as “sheer nonsense.” Before Sunday’s vote, she had encouraged voters to cross out every candidate’s name on the ballot.

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