According to political analysts, changes to the Belarusian constitution were intended to solidify the power of Lukashenko's regime after the mass protests in 2020 and 2021, which challenged his rule and was brutally suppressed by police.
The changes to the Constitution allow Lukashenko to remain in office until 2035 and empower the All-Belarusian People's Assembly, an extra-parliamentary body dominated by government supporters.
[3][4][5] According to the Central Election Commission of Belarus (CEC), 65.2% of voters voted in favor of the amendments to the State Constitution, offered by the authorities.
[5] The referendum was carried out in an atmosphere of repression;[6] the Belarusian opposition was not permitted to campaign, and the election was considered neither free nor fair.
[7] The referendum was denounced as a sham by the Belarusian opposition and its exiled leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya,[5] by the European Union,[8] and by the United States.
[14][15] A few days earlier, on March 10, 2022, the opposition published its version of the new Constitution that should have changed the state system to parliamentary instead of presidential.
The opposition also offered to switch to White-red-white flag and Pahonia coat of arms, to abolish the death penalty, strengthen the Belarusian language and reform the state education system.
[18] In the aftermath of the 2020 Belarusian presidential election educators, who generally work in local electoral commissions, were widely criticized for assistance in fraud.
According to journalist Sergey Pulsha, one of Karpienka's main tasks was to draw more teachers to local committees to ensure specific results of the referendum, desired by the authorities.
[24] There is a recorded case of legal prosecution of Nikolay Vitikov, a 68 years old Belarusian retiree, who sent his letter with proposals to a local newspaper.
Later the newspaper published an article claiming that it had reported the man because they found his letter offensive to the authorities, containing "fascist slogans" and "Judas kisses".
[31] Meanwhile, an independent political analyst Artyom Shreibman [be] thought it was an intimidation step to make voters feel controlled and surveyed.
[41][42][43] Some political analysts suggested that the main change in the constitution was legitimization of the All-Belarusian People's Assembly that was created by Lukashenko's regime.
[55] The bulletin was written in Russian and had only one question:[56] Принимаете ли Вы изменения и дополнения Конституции Республики Беларусь?
Belarusian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Makei claimed that ODIHR reports ‘were written beforehand with deep prejudices and maximum political motivation’.
[63][55] Only when the voting started 22 independent observers from Austria, Germany, Spain, Lithuania, Italy, Ukraine, Serbia, Switzerland, and Estonia, were authorized to monitor the polling process.
[21] He stressed that Belarus would remain a "superpresidential" republic with a formal "three-storeyed construction" (two chambers of the parliament and the All-Belarusian People's Assembly).
[76] The amendments will also remove Article 18 that pledged that "the Republic of Belarus aims at making its territory a nuclear-free zone", worrying NATO that it could allow Russian nuclear weapons.
The commission (which wasn't allowed to meet with Belarusian authorities) also criticized the opaque process of the development of the changes and lack of collaboration of the government, the opposition, the civil society and other interested parties.
[79] Several political analysts underlined that the Russian invasion of Ukraine blinded the media and society and helped Lukashenko to distract the public eye from the referendum.
[80][81] After the referendum an independent initiative ‘Human Rights For Free Elections’, established by the ‘Viasna’ and the BHC, published a report on violations during the polling.
[84] An observer from the Belarusian Left Party "A Just World" Vadim Kuzmin had his accreditation annulled and was called to the General Prosecutor's office for reporting violations at his polling station.
[87] United States, Canada and several countries in the European Union, refused to recognize the results, condemned violations at the Referendum and noted there was no space for democracy and free voting in Belarus under Lukashenko's regime and his massive crackdown on opposition.