MINSK (Reuters) -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.
The close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin has led Belarus since 1994. The U.S. and European Union both said in the run-up to the election that it would be a sham because independent media are banned in Belarus and all leading opposition figures have been sent to penal colonies or forced to flee abroad.
Challenged over the jailing of his opponents, Lukashenko told journalists that they were the authors of their own fate.
“Some chose prison, some chose ‘exile’, as you say. We didn’t kick anyone out of the country” he told a marathon press conference lasting more than four hours and 20 minutes.
He said no one was prevented from speaking out in…
