By Tom Balmforth
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A new constitution project for Belarus, which President Alexander Lukashenko presented as a solution to a political crisis, but which the opposition rejects as a farce, will be drafted this year, Lukashenko said in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday. .
Belarus has seen protests since the August 9 presidential election, which Lukashenko says he won, but the opposition says it has been stolen. Thousands of protesters were arrested and almost all opposition political figures were exiled or arrested.
Although demonstrations have slowed in the past five months, social media videos showed hundreds of protesters on Sunday carrying red and white opposition flags at small rallies in Minsk, shouting for Lukashenko to resign.
Since the start of the crisis, Lukashenko has promised unspecified constitutional reforms. At one point, he even suggested that he resign as soon as a new constitution was adopted. The opposition systematically rejected the proposal as a coup to keep him in power.
In excerpts from an interview with Russian television recorded in December but not previously broadcast, the RIA news agency quoted Lukashenko as saying he believed the new constitution project would be completed by the end of 2021.
“And then the people will determine in a referendum whether there should be a new constitution or not,” he said. It was his strongest statement so far about the timing of the reform.
The referendum date will be announced when parliament meets on 11 and 12 February, he said.
Exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said a new election should be held this year and a new constitution drafted without Lukashenko’s participation.
“A person who has demeaned himself for using terror against Belarusians has nothing to do with the country’s main law,” she said in a statement on social media. “He will continue to promote his (plan) manipulator to deceive us once again and buy himself time.”
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Peter Graff)