Belarus leader announces vote on a new constitution in 2022

By YURAS KARMANAU
Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The authoritarian leader of Belarus has announced a referendum on a new constitution to be held in February 2022 and promised not to let the opposition come to power. President Alexander Lukashenko told a government meeting Tuesday he had drafted a new constitution that redistributes powers between the main branches of the government and establishes a new governing body — the All-Belarus People’s Assembly. Lukashenko has said earlier that he would step down as president — a post he has occupied for over a quarter century — once the new constitution is adopted. But in recent months he has stopped mentioning that. The opposition and the West say the August 2020 presidential vote that kept him in office was a sham.