Aliaksandr Dabravolski: People not interested in “elections” or “referendums”

Belarusians will ignore another initiative of the authorities.

Aliaksandr Dabravolski, a member of the political council of the United Civil Party (UCP), spoke to charter97.org about the idea of holding another “ referendum” to amend the Constitution.

“Expect for returning independence to the judicial branch, there are no urgent and principled questions in the judicial system that require changes. Holding a 'referendum' that won't give independence to courts is nonsense and a waste of money. All referendums held by the dictatorship are a truncheon for people, as Valery Kastko said. I think the initiative to organise a referendum is either ill-thought or has secret aims. It's possible that it will be a trick to deceive people. But it won't work, because everyone understands: everything that is happening in the country happens on the order of the authorities. It seems to me the time of using 'referendums' by the authorities for their purposes has gone. Nothing controls them now. They can easily live without 'referendums' or 'elections'. The other matter is that it leads to a catastrophe,” the politician said.

Aliaksandr Dabravolski doesn't rule out the possibility that the authorities may use the “referendum” to encourage people to take part in “elections”.

“If someone is interested in voter turnout at “elections”, it can be slightly increased by proposing a debatable issue for the referendum. People are not interested in it. They understand that 'elections', especially local elections, decide nothing. The question of the judicial system is not interesting for anyone, because all understand what our courts are. It is an outrage organised by officials against ordinary citizens. If they invent something new, the results will possible be different. I think the authorities are not able to control public processes whatever they do.

The concept of reforming the judicial system supposing a merger of general jurisdiction courts and economic courts was approved on November 19 at a meeting with Lukashenka. The reform requires amending the country's Constitution. The dictator ordered to prepare the necessary documents within 10 days. The planned reform of the judicial system was announced by deputy head of Lukashenka's administration Valery Mitskevich.

He says the merger of general jurisdiction courts and economic courts “is possible without having to amend the Constitution first, but the Constitution will have to be amended later to no longer mention the Supreme Economic Court.” “The part of the country's main law with the articles that need amendments can be changed only through a referendum,” he said.