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.

Europe’s longest-serving leader won re-election in a contest widely believe to have been rigged. The result cements the power of a leader whose country is considered Russia’s staunchest ally.

EU said it will not lift sanctions against Alexander Lukashenko's government following 'sham' presidential elections Belarus's autocrat Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994, won re-election Sunday in an election without real competition and slammed by the European Union and much of the West as a "sham",