Lukashenko: Belarus has strong state power
During a solemn ceremony to sign the Decision of the nationwide constitutional referendum – held today at the Palace of Independence – the President of Belarus commented on the role and tasks of the institutions of power stipulated by the new Constitution
“Belarus has been and now remains a republic with strong state power. The Head of State will have enough opportunities to exercise the powers of the country's political leader. However, other government institutions should perform their functions more boldly and independently,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
According to the Head of State, the Government's task is to ensure development of the economy, social sphere, science, culture and education, while also regulating foreign trade activities. Executive committees should actively work with people on the spot and use all the available resources at their level to solve the problems that people are worried about. “After all, it is no need to wait for orders from higher authorities if it necessary to create jobs, repair a road or develop a parking lot,” he explained.
According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, Parliament needs to reach a fundamentally new level of work, “To create new generation laws that will be a key legal instrument – the laws that should come from life and be understandable to ordinary citizens, not only specialists.”
The Belarusian leader emphasised that these all dictate new requirements for the National Assembly, “It should unite more people able to work with bills. They will need not simply to study them but also to independently develop legal solutions for implementation of society's requests.”
A systematic approach is required: there will be no more situations when a law is passed but then the President is several times addressed to in order to make further amendments and additions. It is also necessary to gradually move away from individual legal decisions.
According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, the new Constitution envisages no decrees and stipulates that ordinances and regulations should not contradict the law. “The previously adopted Presidential acts will definitely continue to be valid – but they need to be revised. Some should be left, while the norms of others should be necessarily transferred to laws, and some will need to be renounced. This work is to complete within two years – as envisaged by the Constitution,” he noted.
Aleksandr Lukashenko added that the hierarchy of normative legal acts now needs to be built anew – to seamlessly embrace the decisions of the Belarusian People's Congress.
