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.

Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has extended his more than three decades in power after an orchestrated election that the opposition and the European Union rejected as a sham.The country’s exiled opposition leader called the result “sheer nonsense”.

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.