Electoral integration

Lukashenko needs Russia's support

The main topic of today's negotiations between Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko in St. Petersburg will be the draft constitutional act of the union state. This issue has been discussed for many years, but it has not been possible to achieve a common vision of the integration model. Nevertheless, in the last six months the negotiation process on the union constitution has intensified. Observers associate this with the upcoming presidential elections in Belarus on March 19.

“The parties have been promising increased integration for many years, but are in no hurry to implement them. Perhaps the process will continue in the same form in the future. An exception may be a situation in which the adoption of a union constitution becomes a condition for the Kremlin’s support for Lukashenko in the presidential elections,” Belarusian sociologist Oleg Manaev noted to Vremya Novostey.

The other day, the speaker of the Russian State Duma, Boris Gryzlov, suggested that a referendum on the constitutional act could take place before the end of the year. The head of the Belarusian Central Election Commission, Lidiya Ermoshina, explained to VN: “Everything depends on the political will of the states. Technically, holding a referendum in 2006 is possible, although financially difficult. Gryzlov's statement is political in nature. From an organizational point of view, the CEC is not currently carrying out such work and has not received relevant instructions.”

The content of the draft constitutional act is unknown to the general public. For many years, the stumbling block was the powers of the union bodies. Belarus has always supported strong union authorities. At the same time, the Belarusian president regularly reminds that integration is possible only if the sovereignty of each of the participants is preserved.

The leader of the Belarusian United Civil Party, Anatoly Lebedko, noted to VN that Alexander Lukashenko received economic support from Russia in the form of cheap gas on the eve of the elections, but it is also important for the Belarusian leader to secure political, preferably public, support from Moscow. Our interlocutor suggested that “the constitutional act is important for Lukashenko if it gives him the opportunity to fight for an influential post in the united state.” Alexander Lukashenko himself denies that he has such ambitions.

Anna NAUMOVA, Olga TOMASHEVSKAYA, Minsk