Lukashenka issues decree on referendum

1996-10-29 14:10

Minsk, 29 October. President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has issued a decree titled, "On Measures to Ensure the Preparation and Conducting of a National Referendum on November 24, 1996."
According to the decree, the Cabinet of Ministers has been instructed to ensure the prompt providing of funds for the commissions for the referendum. "To reimburse expenses for the preparation and conducting of the referendum, the voluntary donations of enterprises, institutions, organizations, public associations, workers' collectives and citizens of the Republic of Belarus should be used in the first instance." Prime Minister Mikhail Chyhir has personally been instructed to ensure the implementation of Point 1.3 of the decree which reads, "Measures should be taken to provide proper guarantees for people to exercise their right to vote during the referendum." At the request of the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda, the president's Administrative Department has been instructed to ensure the printing of ballots and the other required documents before November 4, as well as to publish the text of the draft constitutional amendments proposed by the President before November 8 in cooperation with the Sovetskaya Belorussiya editorial staff. The number of copies should be sufficient to provide each voter with a copy and each polling station with five copies. The Ministry of Communications and Informatics has been instructed to ensure the distribution of the draft constitutional amendments among the voters before November 8. The President has also given instructions to the Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the local executive bodies, including to take appropriate measures in view of the "proposals made by commissions for the referendum and requests of the voters who have no opportunity to arrive at polling stations, their transportation to these stations should be organized," and "precinct commissions for the referendum should be assisted in the organization of voting where the people who have no opportunity to arrive at the voting place stay on the day of the referendum." Giving these instructions the president refers to "Paragraph 8 of Article 28 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus 'On People's Vote (Referenda) in the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic."