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After a visit by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko reaffirmed plans for a new constitution and also promised his departure. “With the new constitution I will no longer work as president,” Lukashenko said, according to the state agency Belta, in Minsk.
The Belarusian ruler, however, left open the possibility of when it would be. Lavrov urged Minsk on Thursday to address the reforms. It is also unclear when Lukashenko will actually implement this. He repeatedly speaks of constitutional reforms, but so far he has not given a specific timetable.
Lukashenko has now assured that the new constitution will restrict the president’s almost unlimited powers. To this end, the functions of parliament and government will be strengthened. He criticized the establishment of new parties and parliamentary elections based on party lists. That only leads to the formation of interest groups and a division in society.
Since the controversial presidential elections on August 9, after which he was declared the winner again after 26 years in office, there have been massive protests and strikes against him. Lukashenko had repeatedly refused to resign or hand over power.
Minsk political scientist Valery Karbelevich believes that Lukashenko will continue to keep all options open. “The announcement that they will not run again under the new constitution is a candle of smoke,” he told the dpa news agency. “Lukashenko leaves open when this constitutional reform will take place and who will implement it.”
Lukashenko has been working for months and is pending the date of the 2025 elections. Until then he wants to continue ruling. All that has been known so far about “secret plans to amend the constitution” does not amount to change, Karbelevitsch stressed.
The democratic movement headed by Svetlana Tichanovskaya, 38, continues to call for Lukashenko’s resignation, an end to police violence, the release of all political prisoners and early elections. Tichanovskaya, who is exiled in the EU and is seen by many as the real winner of the presidential elections, called for further protests. Actions against Lukashenko are scheduled again this Sunday in Minsk and other cities.
