Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko extended his 31-year rule with a massive win in a presidential election that Western governments have rejected as a sham, according to preliminary results on Monday.

As Belarusians voted, Lukashenko sparred with the world's media at a press conference lasting more than four hours and 20 minutes. Asked how the election could be free and fair, given that all the main opposition figures are in jail or have fled the country,

Belarus autocrat Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994, won a seventh consecutive term in office Sunday in an election denounced by the European Union and the exiled opposition.