MINSK, 12 November (BelTA) – The new Belarus Constitution draft sees Belarus as a presidential republic, but it does not cater for the incumbent president, Deputy Head of the Belarus President Administration Olga Chupris told the ONT TV channel, BelTA has learned.
“The constitutional amendments can be described the following way: they cater for the presidential republic, but it is quite obvious that they do not cater for the incumbent president. The incumbent president already has many powers and he is exercising them in practice. The new Constitution definitely does not seek to accommodate Aleksandr Lukashenko,” Olga Chupris emphasized.
The head of state repeatedly noted that Belarus should remain a presidential republic, but that power within the country should be balanced. At the October meeting with a working group on finalizing the draft constitutional amendments Aleksandr Lukashenko said that the self-exiled opposition was trying to convince everyone that the new Constitution was being drafted to meet the needs of the incumbent president. Aleksandr Lukashenko debunked this myth: according to him, it is the existing Constitution that secures a strong presidential power.
“To be frank, the existing Constitution accommodates the president the most. According to the opposition's criteria, this is the best Constitution any president can dream of. This Constitution is really very tough. Many experts say that we have an authoritarian government due to this Constitution; this is true. We explained why we drafted this Constitution and why it caters for the president. Thus, any other Constitution will be ‘weaker' or, as they say, ‘more democratic' than the current one,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
