On April 24-25, the so-called All-Belarusian People’s Assembly took place in Minsk to approve the guidelines for Belarus’s domestic and foreign policies.
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s Advisor for Constitutional Reform and Interparliamentary Cooperation, Anatoli Liabedzka, comments on the results of the assembly:
“Lukashenka and his propaganda vertical have openly and shamelessly admitted that Belarus is a dictatorship. At the same time, they are trying to present this assembly as an example of grass-roots democracy. But are people on the ground allowed to do anything in today’s Belarus? After all, more than 300 thousand Belarusians have been expelled from the country, more than one and a half thousand non-governmental organizations have been liquidated, and all opposition parties and independent trade unions have been crushed. Voters can no longer effectively elect anyone or be elected. So this assembly cannot really redistribute authority or power.
In the new Belarus, the power distribution principle will be restored, and the parliament will regain its powers. It will include deputies elected in free and fair elections, accountable only to the voters”.
