MINSK, 24 February (BelTA) – Belarusians should go to the polls, otherwise, if they start hesitating and ignore the referendum, this will be a shame for the country, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he answered reporters' questions on 24 February, BelTA has learned.
““If we allow this confusion and vacillation and choose to stay away from the referendum, this will be a disgrace for us, for the citizens of Belarus. It will be a shame. We should go to the polls. This is not my referendum and not my Constitution. In my view as the president, this would be a good Constitution. This is the first step towards change. We will write it all down and then slowly, over the course of a year or two, we will do it. It will be a completely different, as journalists say, political setting, the political map of Belarus. It will provide for some constraints for the incumbent president and the future president,” the head of state said.
As for the criticism of the new Belarus Constitution draft by the self-exiled opposition, the president believes that they reject any steps and decisions of the authorities in principle. “For them, everything that Lukashenko says is wrong even if he says the right things. They keep rocking the boat without realizing that they have reached a deadlock,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.