Belarusian leader and Russian ally Alexander Lukashenko extended his 31-year rule on Monday after electoral officials declared him the winner of a presidential election that Western governments rejected as a sham.

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

Election officials say Lukashenko received 86.8 percent of vote amid accusations the vote was neither free nor fair.

EU said it will not lift sanctions against Alexander Lukashenko’s government following ‘sham’ presidential elections.

By Mark Trevelyan (Reuters) -Belarusian leader and Russian ally Alexander Lukashenko extended his 31-year rule on Monday after electoral officials declared him the winner of a presidential election that Western governments rejected as a sham.

Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko declared himself president for his seventh consecutive term in an election on Jan. 26 internationally deemed as neither free nor fair. The Belarusian Election Commission claimed that Lukashenko "won" 86.

"Alexander Lukashenko received 86.82% of the votes in the Belarusian elections, according to CEC chairman Igor Karpenko," the report said. Read also: Belarus holds election as Ukraine and EU reject legitimacy of results BELTA also released preliminary results for other candidates and the “against all” option: ・Oleg Gaydukevich – 2.

MINSK (Reuters) -Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko was on track to extend his 31-year rule with 87.6% of the vote in a presidential election on Sunday, according to an exit poll broadcast on state TV,

Alexander Lukashenko, who has led Belarus for the past 30 years, was on Sunday set to win his seventh consecutive mandate in an election slammed by both the opposition and the European Union as a sham vote.