BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union rejected the election in Belarus on Sunday as illegitimate and threatened new sanctions. Belarus held an orchestrated vote virtually guaranteed to give 70-year-old autocratic President Alexander Lukashenko yet another term on top of his three decades in power.

As an East African bloc urged an immediate ceasefire in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwandan-backed M23 rebels who seized the city of Goma extended their advance on Wednesday, and Congo said it planned a campaign to recover lost territory.

Alexander Lukashenko was declared the landslide winner of presidential elections in Belarus. His victory was seen as a foregone conclusion in a country he's run for more than 30 years.

STORY: Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko extended his 31-year rule with a massive election win.The country held a presidential election on Sunday.According to results published on the Central Election Commission's Telegram account,

Britain on Monday imposed sanctions targeting Belarusian officials and defence companies after joining Western governments in condemning what they called "sham" presidential elections in the country.

Belarus' opposition activists and Western officials on Monday denounced an orchestrated election that extends the more than three-decade rule of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. The country's exiled opposition leader called the result “sheer nonsense.

No credible opponents were allowed to run against Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus since the 1990s.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko won a seventh consecutive term in office Sunday in an election denounced by the European Union and the country's exiled opposition. With all his opponents in prison or living in exile abroad,