Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the leader-in-exile of Belarus's opposition, has dismissed election results that saw longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko declared winner. China and Russia offered Minsk their congratulations.

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 on Sunday held an orchestrated election virtually guaranteed to give its 70-year-old autocrat, Alexander Lukashenko, yet another presidential term on top of his three decades in power.