Belarus to put leader`s term limits to the people :: Charter'97 :: News

Belarusians face a stark choice today when they vote in a referendum to scrap presidential term limits, a decision that could determine whether the 10 million-strong nation remains an isolated Soviet-style throwback.

President Alexander Lukashenko, described as Europe’s last authoritarian leader, has told voters there is no alternative to giving him permission to run for a third term in the referendum.

Belarusians are also voting to fill the nation’s largely impotent 110-seat parliament.

The opposition and independent analysts say Lukashenko is far short of the support he needs from a majority of Belarus’s seven million registered voters to pass the referendum, and they predict widespread falsification and vote-tampering. Election officials reject the allegations.

The US state department said it has strong doubts the vote would meet international standards, citing the government’s "persistent and serious infringements of human rights and democracy".

Lukashenko, 50, was first elected on an anti-corruption platform in 1994. He soon cracked down on dissent and practically froze privatisation, keeping the economy firmly under state control. In 1996, he dissolved parliament and created a loyal legislature after a referendum that boosted his powers and extended his term by two years.

The Belarusian capital, Minsk, glimmers under French-made street lamps presented as a gift from Lukashenko, while cosy cafe`s and Western boutiques abound in the imposing Stalinist buildings that dominate the main street.

However, the average monthly salary remains 310,000 Belarusian rubles, about ?78, foreign investment is minuscule, and an opinion poll by Belarus’s respected Independent Institute of Socio-Economic and Political Studies suggests as many as two-thirds of Belarus’s young people dream of emigrating.

Alone among former Soviet republics, Belarus still calls its security service the KGB. The Soviet-era flag has been resurrected and while police here are largely unobtrusive, unlike in neighbouring Russia, many Belarusians will not give their last names if they criticise Lukashenko, for fear of being found out and punished.

Opposition leader Stanislav Shushkevich, who together with Russia’s Boris Yeltsin and Ukraine’s Leonid Kravchuk signed the 1991 document that dissolved the Soviet Union, said: "There is neo-socialism, but Belarus has gone even further. We have neo-communism." - AP