More than 65% of the population of this former Soviet Republic, close to Russian power, voted on Sunday for the amendments to the Constitution that allow for a lifetime judicial immunity for the former presidents.
Le Monde with AFP
Not surprisingly, the “yes” won, Sunday, February 27, in Belarus, during a constitutional referendum to strengthen the powers of President Alexander Loukachenko, aged 67, who leads this former Soviet Republic of A hand of iron since 1994.
“65.16% voters voted for the amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus,” announced, on Sunday night to Monday, the President of the Belarusian Central Electoral Commission, Igor Karpenko, cited by the Russian news agencies. According to him, 10.07% voted against. The participation rate was 78.63%, according to the same source.
To be adopted, the amendments needed more than 50% of the votes, the referendum being considered valid if more than 50% of voters participated.
Among the proposed changes, judicial immunity for life for the former presidents and the introduction of up to two presidential mandates. If the Constitution did not consider any limit in the matter before, this new provision would apply from the entry into a new president, which would allow Alexandre Loukachenko to remain in power until 2035. It is re-elected in 2025.
End of the obligation to be a “nuclear zone”
In the amended version also disappears the obligation for Belarus to remain a “nuclear zone”. This article would be replaced by an article “excluding military aggression from the territory” Belarusian. At the end of January, the United States had alarmed itself that this reform does not allow for the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in Belarus, a border country of Ukraine and Poland.
The referendum occurred when the neighboring Ukraine is in the grip of a Russian invasion triggered on 24 February, while talks between Russians and Ukrainians, announced by both parties, must take place at the Belarusian border.
The re-election of Alexander Loukachenko to the presidency, in August 2020, had triggered a historic protest movement, violently repressed by the authorities who proceeded to mass arrests, to the liquidations of media and NGOs. In Russia, a constitutional reform adopted in 2020 paved the way to the retention of President Vladimir Putin until 2036.