Belarusian referendum, 1996
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A seven-question referendum was held in
Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
on 24 November 1996. Four questions were put forward by
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
Alexander Lukashenko Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (as transliterated from Russian language, Russian; also transliterated from Belarusian language, Belarusian as Alyaksand(a)r Ryhoravich Lukashenka;, ; rus, Александр Григорьевич Лука ...
on changing the date of the country's
independence day An independence day is an annual event commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or more rarely after the end of a military occupation. Man ...
, amending the
constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...
, changing laws on the sale of land and the
abolition of the death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
. The Supreme Council put forward three questions on constitutional amendments by the
Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
and Agrarian factions, local elections and the national finances. All of Lukashenko's proposals were approved, namely changing Belarus's national day, amending the constitution, and retaining the death penalty and a ban on land sales.
Voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Unive ...
was claimed to be 84.1%.Nohlen & Stöver, pp256–257 However, the referendum, like its 1995 predecessor, was condemned by international organizations including the
OSCE Parliamentary Assembly The Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE (OSCE PA) is an institution of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. The primary task of the 323-member Assembly is to facilitate inter-parliamentary dialogue, an important aspect of the o ...
, as falling far short of democratic standards, while others described it as a further consolidation of Lukashenko's
dictatorship A dictatorship is a form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, which holds governmental powers with few to no limitations on them. The leader of a dictatorship is called a dictator. Politics in a dictatorship are ...
.


Background

In the summer of 1996 President Lukashenko presented constitutional amendments for approval to the Supreme Soviet. However, the Soviet then produced a counterproposal, one provision of which would abolish the position of President. The ensuing power struggle escalated quickly, leading to intervention by Russian officials to try and negotiate a compromise that included declaring that the referendum would not be binding.


Questions

Voters were asked whether they approved of: # Independence Day (Republic Day) being moved from 27 July, the day of the Declaration of Sovereignty of Belarus from the Soviet Union, to 3 July, the day of liberation of Belarus from Nazi Germany in 1944; #Constitutional amendments put forward by President Lukashenko, which dramatically increased the president's power. Among other things, these amendments gave Lukashenko's decrees the force of law, gave him near-total control over the budget and extended his term to 2001; #The free sale of property; #The abolition of the death penalty; #The constitutional amendments put forward by the Supreme Soviet; #Direct elections to local bodies; #All state expenses being part of the national budget.


Conduct

Due to several violations of electoral norms and Lukashenko's use of the state-owned media,
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
and some other
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countries were the only members of the
OSCE The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, prom ...
to recognise the results. The
Belarusian Helsinki Committee The Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC; ) is a non-governmental human rights organization established in 1995 and in 2007 was the sole remaining independent human rights group in Belarus, apart from Viasna Human Rights Centre. Its goal is protectio ...
found that: #The local referendum commissions that should have been formed by local legislative bodies no later than one month before the referendum, were only set up for 5–7 days; #President Lukashenko illegally removed
Viktar Hanchar Viktar Hanchar, or Viktar Hančar ( be, Віктар Ганчар, russian: Виктор Гончар, Viktor Gonchar, September 7, 1957 – September 16, 1999?) was a Belarusian politician who disappeared and was presumably murdered in 1999. He w ...
, chairman of the Central Commission for Elections and National Referendums, from office. As a result, the work of the Commission, that was supposed to control the legality of the vote, was paralyzed; #By the time early voting began (9 November), polling stations had not been provided with proposed amendments and additions to the Constitutions, so the citizens did not know what they were voting for; #Voters were illegally called (and in many cases forced) to vote earlier than the actual date of the referendum. As a result, by the day of the referendum, nearly a quarter of voters has already voted; #Ballot papers were printed by the Office of Presidential Affairs of the Republic of Belarus. They were taken to polling stations without passing through the Central Commission for Elections and National Referendums and its regional divisions. There was no accounting for the number of ballots; #The referendum was funded not from the state budget, but from unknown "charitable" contributions, which was illegal. The Central Commission for Elections and National Referendums was completely removed from funding the referendum; #There was agitation and propaganda in favour of the position of President Lukashenko. In some cases the agitation was carried out directly at polling stations; #On the day of the referendum, observers, representatives of political parties and public organizations had obstacles placed in their way in trying to monitoring the voting, they were not allowed to enter the voting stations and were not given information they required; #There were numerous violations of the law at polling stations, such as no booths for secret ballots, no draft amendments and additions to the Constitution, voters allowed to vote without presenting identification documents, damaged seals on ballot boxes, and evidence of forgery of voter signatures. The opposition also spoke of rigging of the referendum. According to
Sergey Kalyakin Sergey Ivanovich Kalyakin, ''Siarhiej Ivanavič Kaliakin''russian: Серге́й Ива́нович Каля́кин (born 16 June 1952) is a Belarusian opposition politician who is the current leader of the Belarusian Left Party "A Just Wo ...
, head of the
Eurocommunist Eurocommunism, also referred to as democratic communism or neocommunism, was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties which said they had developed a theory and practice of social transformation more rele ...
faction of the parliament, 20 to 50 percent of the votes counted have been falsified.
Syamyon Sharetski Syamyon Georgiyevich Sharetski ( be, Сямён Георгіевіч Шарэцкi, Siamion Heorhijevič Šarecki, russian: Семён Георгиевич Шарецкий) was the last acting Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Belarus. August 2 ...
, speaker of parliament, called the 1996 referendum "a farce and violence against the people" and said that "the outcome of such a plebiscite could not be accepted either in Belarus nor by the international community". The opposition did not recognise the results of the referendum, nor those of the previous referendum held in 1995. The oppositional
Conservative Christian Party Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
calls for a return to the Constitution of 1994. Alena Skryhan, the deputy head of Communist fraction of the Parliament in 1996 said that the referendum had led to monopolization of all branches of power by president Lukashenko. Since then, various Belarusian opposition figures and former officials have criticized the referendum, with former Minister of Labour, Aliaksandr Sasnou, calling it a "coup".


Results


Aftermath

Although Lukashenko and the Supreme Soviet had signed an agreement that the Soviet would have the final decision on whether to adopt the constitutional amendments, Lukashenko broke the agreement.Nohlen & Stöver, p237 After the constitution was promulgated a new
House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
was assembled, with only Lukashenko loyalists admitted. Around sixty members of the Supreme Soviet who rejected the new constitution continued to work in the Soviet, which was recognised as the legitimate parliament by the international community.


References


External links


Official 1996 Belarus Referendum data
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20110927143656/http://charter97.org/index.phtml?sid=2&did=10&lang=1 Фотакроніка-1996br>24 ноября - вторая годовщина референдума; “Белорусская газета”, 23 ноября 1998 года
*


Projects of the Constitution

*Parliamentary project (Communist and agrarian deputy groups)



{{Belarusian elections Constitutional amendments Referendums in Belarus
Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
1996 in Belarus Constitutional referendums November 1996 events in Europe