More than 65% of Belarusians voted on Sunday for the amendments to the Constitution proposed by President Alexander Lukashenko, announced the Central Electoral Commission of this former Soviet republic.
The question put to the vote related to the adoption or not of these amendments which would make it possible to strengthen the powers of Mr. Lukashenko, aged 67, who has ruled Belarus with an iron fist since 1994.
The referendum came as neighboring Ukraine is in the throes of a Russian invasion that began on February 24, as talks between Russians and Ukrainians, announced by both sides, are due to take place on the Belarusian border.
“65.16% of voters voted for the amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus”, announced on the night of Sunday to Monday the chairman of the Belarusian Central Electoral Commission, Igor Karpenko, quoted by the agencies of Russian press.
According to him, 10.07% voted against.
The turnout was 78.63%, according to the same source.
To be adopted, the amendments needed to collect more than 50% of the votes, the referendum being considered valid if more than 50% of voters took part.
Among the proposed changes are lifelong legal immunity for former presidents, and the introduction of a two-term presidential limit for Mr Lukashenko’s successors.
If the constitution did not envisage a limit before, this new limit would apply from the entry into office of a new president, which would allow Alexander Lukashenko to remain in power until 2035 if he is re-elected in 2025.
In the amended version, the obligation for Belarus to remain a “nuclear-free zone” also disappears. This article would be replaced by an article “excluding military aggression from the territory” of Belarus.
At the end of January, the United States were alarmed that this reform would not allow the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus, a country bordering Ukraine and Poland.
The re-election of Alexander Lukashenko to the presidency in August 2020 sparked a historic protest movement in this former Soviet republic, violently repressed by the authorities, who carried out mass arrests, liquidations of media and NGOs.
In Russia, a constitutional reform adopted in 2020 paved the way for President Vladimir Putin to stay in power until 2036.