According to the Belarusian leader, “no one is going to do anything for themselves”.
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko confirmed his readiness to hold a constitutional referendum in the republic.
“We have a referendum ahead of us. We will have to hold it, convince people, although we will not strain too much. We will just tell people what changes await us in connection with the amendment of the constitution, so that we are not reproached that we are holding wildly power here with blue hands, as I often say, and now we are “making this constitution for ourselves”, Lukashenko said, making personnel decisions on the appointment of heads of local authorities, he was quoted by the BelTA news agency on Monday. According to Lukashenka, “no one is going to do anything for themselves”.
“As promised, we will hold a referendum”, he stressed.
The President drew the attention of officials to the need to work with people. “If we want support from the population, from the Belarusian people, we need to work with the people,” he said. The head of state stressed that organizing this process is the task of local authorities as well. At the same time, he noted that the chairmen of the district executive committees and the employees of the vertical of power “will, of course, have a hard time.”
Against the backdrop of protests in Belarus that began after the presidential elections on August 9 last year, Lukashenko announced the need to change the constitution and readiness to redistribute some of the presidential powers in favor of other branches of government. Among the proposals prepared by the Constitutional Commission created by the presidential decree, there is, in particular, a proposal that the head of state is elected for five years directly by the people of Belarus by secret ballot on the basis of universal, free, equal and direct suffrage, and one and the other the same person can be president for no more than two terms. It is also proposed to deprive the country’s leader of the right to abolish government acts and issue decrees. The proposals were submitted to the head of state. It was reported that at the beginning of next year, the draft constitution will be submitted for national discussion.