MINSK, 26 February (BelTA) – The new draft of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus corresponds to the modern reality, BelTA learned from Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko.
On 26 February the prime minister took part in early voting during the national referendum on amending and expanding Belarus' Constitution.
The official said: “Nearly 80 articles of the current Constitution have been reworked. Apart from that, 11 new articles and an entire chapter have been added. It was a substantial amount of work. The Constitutional Commission and the group of experts worked very hard. A lot of proposals were submitted as part of the public hearings. The referendum represents a serious step in the constitutional development of our state. The key thing the updated Constitution has to accomplish is to take into account all the changes in the political, economic, and social spheres of life of our society that have happened since the current Constitution was passed. The new Constitution takes into account new facts, too. In particular, the fact that we now have a nuclear energy industry. Broad use of personal data did not exist in the past. This is why with the new Constitution the state assumes the responsibility for the development of peaceful nuclear energy and its safe use. The state also assumes responsibility for protecting personal data.”
The prime minister mentioned the amendments and addenda of special importance to him such as traditional family values. “Attempts are being made to enforce totally different views on the family upon us under the guise of democracy and personal freedoms. These attempts promote immorality, negativism, and lack of responsibility. The expansion of oversight functions of the parliament also appeals to me. It means the political system of our state is becoming more up-to-date. The stronger role of the parliament is very important from the point of development of the modern political system,” Roman Golovchenko said. “And then the expansion of authority of the Belarusian People's Congress is probably the most important political novelty, to which an entire chapter is dedicated. It is happening in the context of what the head of state often said. I mean the redistribution of government authority. But if you take over powers, you also get responsibility for their realization. It creates a consolidating foundation for our development for many years to come.”
Roman Golovchenko mentioned why he had decided to cast his vote early. “I work today and tomorrow. Since we came back from a business trip to Kazakhstan only yesterday, I decided to take part in the referendum without delay. The latest statistics indicates that about 40% of the citizens have opted for early voting. As you can see, I am one of them,” the prime minister concluded.
