We welcome the successful holding of the constitutional referendum in Belarus on February 27 this year. In Russia, they respect the sovereign will of the citizens of the fraternal republic. According to preliminary data of the CEC of Belarus, the overwhelming number of Belarusians (almost 83% of those who came to the polling stations) voted for the adoption of amendments to the Basic Law of the country with a very high turnout (about 79% of the list of voters). At the same time, despite the active appeals of the emigrant opposition, the share of spoiled ballots did not exceed 4%. And although the final meeting of the CEC of Belarus is scheduled for March 3 this year, it is already obvious that the constitutional reform enjoys broad support of the population of the republic.
We noticed that international observers gave high marks to the organization of voting. Representatives of the missions of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and observers from a number of EU countries called the referendum free and open. Russians took an active part in monitoring the voting within the framework of the missions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia, the Executive Committee and the Parliamentary Assembly of the CIS, the SCO, as well as on a bilateral basis – at the invitation of the Belarusian Central Election Commission. Such missions included representatives of the State Duma and the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, the CEC of Russia and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.
Constitutional reform is the most important component of the process of modernization of the political structure of Belarus, launched in February last year by the decision of the VI All-Belarusian People’s Assembly. We are convinced that its successful implementation will meet the needs of some segments of the population of the republic for change, and therefore will contribute to the consolidation of healthy forces of the Belarusian society, including constructive opposition, and the final settlement of internal political differences.
We are sincerely interested in the stability and prosperity of our union state. At the same time, our principled position is that political transformations in Belarus are its internal affair. This is the realization of the sovereign right of Belarusian citizens to independently, without external pressure, determine the ways of development of their country.
We hope that the main result of changing the Basic Law will be the strengthening of the statehood of Belarus, its internal political stability and the growth of the welfare of its residents. Ultimately, this will contribute to strengthening the positions of our common socio-economic and military-political space, which we are building together within the framework of the Union State, the EAEU and the CSTO.
