3.78 BYN
2.98 BYN
3.45 BYN
Comments and suggestions, feedback and national discussion: is the draft Constitution ready to be submitted to a referendum?
The national discussion of amendments to the Constitution has been going on for three weeks. Now it is time to look at the big picture of the discussion at the highest level. The proposed amendments aroused great interest in society.
President on the constitutional process: two options next
There are still several crucial phases of the constitutional process ahead. After all the comments are evaluated, amendments will be made and the draft will be put up for a referendum. And then the President outlines two options.
Then there will be two options: either the people accept amendments to this Constitution and we have an updated Constitution, or they reject these proposals and we are left with the old Constitution. This is the answer to the question of who benefits and who needs it.
The President of Belarus noted that sometimes one can hear the statements that "it is only Lukashenko's business". "To be frank, I absolutely do not need this process. As you can see, I have a lot of questions and things to do”, said the President. “The main thing remains: to adopt the Constitution, to change the laws, to bring them in line with the Constitution. We will do it, it's not a problem. We will do it with the current parliament, with you, with the current specialists. When we are done all this, then please come and form new bodies of power and continue to live by new laws and new rules".
The finalized draft of the renewed Constitution will be submitted to the head of state within the next few days. This was told to journalists by the head of the presidential administration Igor Sergeenko after the meeting. He noted that there are no serious contradictions. It only requires some corrections with regard to the proposals and opinions of experts.
In general, the draft amendments and additions are perceived positively in the society. In the overwhelming majority, all responses and feedback that are coming support the draft Constitution. Today I have reported on all these additions and innovations. In general, they have been supported. We will continue work today and tomorrow. I think, in the coming days we will finalize and submit both the draft decree and the finalized draft of amendments and additions to the Constitution to the head of state, as the law requires.
The draft constitution is the result of numerous discussions, meetings and discussions at dialogue platforms. Members of the working group also actively travel to the regions and collect opinions. Most of the proposals are received in electronic form. Today, the experts put facts on the table: we have received over 7 thousand responses. The absolute majority, 99% of them are in support of the changes and with their constructive suggestions. Most of them concern the second section of the Constitution, which concerns personal rights and freedoms of citizens including Article 21 on social responsibility, as well as Article 45 on measures for preserving and promoting health. There are also voices in favor of keeping the current edition of the Basic Law, return to the 1994 model, and creation of the parliamentary republic instead of the presidential one. All the proposals are accumulated by the National Center of Legal Information.