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, after hurling defiance at the West and defending the jailing of dissidents.

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.