Mechyslau Hryb: "First and second presidents should have been elected by parliament" :: Charter'97 :: News

13 years ago deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the 12 convocation adopted the first basic law of independent Belarus. Under this law, the country has turned into a presidential republic. After the referendum in 1996 this holiday has become a working day. How this constitution is estimated by deputies who voted for and against its adoption? Radio Svaboda has interviewed several deputies.

As a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the 12th convocation Lyavon Barshcheuski (the Belarusian Popular Front) recalls that attempts to turn Belarus from a parliamentarian into a presidential republic were done in 1990 by leaders of the Communist party. But for a long time these attempts were blocked. After that two commissions, headed by Vasil Shaladonau and Viktar Hanchar, started work on the draft constitution.

Both Shaladonau and Hanchar supported introduction of presidenship. As a result preparatory work of the both commissions was combined, and voting on articles started.

There was much dispute; the BPF opposition was trying to persuade that Belarus didn’t need the presidential form of government. However the pro-government faction managed to win over the majority of deputies. The BPF opposition deputies didn’t take ballots trying to block the vote, however the Constitution was adopted.

“In general, adoption of the first Constitution is positive. But compromise and vague formulas have been adopted. Later they were used to destroy parliamentary system of the country. I mean the famous article which started with the words: The President of the Republic of Belarus is a guarantor of the constitutional order in the country, and takes appropriate measures for its defence,” Lyavon Barshcheuski said.

And the former chairman of the Supreme Soviet Mechyslau Hryb sees a different mistake:

“Currently I believe that it wasn’t a mistake to adopt a constitution with a presidential form of government. The mistake was that we haven’t taken precautions. In the section “On Procedure for Entry into Force of Constitution” we should have adopted a resolution that the first and maybe the second president of Belarus are to be elected by the parliament. And later, when the system would be established, we could switch to a general nation-wide election”.