MINSK, 11 February (BelTA) – Power is not a worthless piece of trash to be ditched, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said in his report at the 6th Belarusian People's Congress on 11 February, BelTA informs.
“I studied Marxism-Leninism, and [Vladimir] Lenin said that you cannot hold power with wide-spread fingers. Power is not a toy, not a ramshackle structure it was after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev should have tried harder, and we would have preserved the country. But you know who was the man at the helm of the country then. It proves once again that if you lose grip on power, it will become worthless and people will wipe the floor with it,” the Belarusian leader said. “I was doing my best to build this country. And you must realize that I will not allow any harm to the country, whether I am in power or not.”
At the same time, the president said he would welcome a new generation of leaders who should be elected by people in honest and open elections after the finalization of necessary laws and the Constitution. “I know that we are living in a transition period. It is necessary to help a new generation come to power. It is inevitable. And people should decide who, from this new generation, will come to power,” the head of state remarked.
Aleksandr Lukashenko said that for this purpose it will be necessary to hold open and transparent elections. “People should decide what they want. And there will be a cast-iron public agreement that honest, open (under the supervision of those who want it) elections should be a law for everybody. If someone starts to question the results, a tough response will follow. We, my generation of politicians, should guarantee it to the Belarusian people. Time will tell in what role the current president and many of you will be,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
