MINSK -- Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka has replaced the long-serving chief of the Central Election Commission (TsVK) ahead of an expected referendum on constitutional amendments he initiated following unprecedented rallies across the country last year questioning the official results of a presidential election that declared him the winner.
Lidzia Yarmoshyna, 68, who ran the TsVK for 25 years and who has been accused by the Belarusian opposition of being behind many cases of election fraud, was replaced on December 13 by Ihar Karpenka, the leader of the pro-Lukashenka Communist Party of Belarus.
Yarmoshyna was appointed to the post in 1996 after Lukashenka removed her predecessor, Viktar Hanchar. Later in 1999, Hanchar disappeared along with businessman Anatol Krasouski. Their whereabouts are still unknown.
The Siberian-born, 57-year-old Karpenka used to be a lawmaker and deputy mayor of Minsk. In October 2012, he was elected as the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus.
Lukashenka promised to change the constitution a year ago amid mass protests following the August 2020 election that opposition leaders and the West say was rigged. He has pledged to hold the vote in February.
In September he said the changes "are aimed at making the constitution more harmonized and balanced by redistributing the powers of the president, the parliament, and the government and establishing a constitutional status for the All-Belarus People's Assembly."
But he gave no details of the draft constitution or the role that the All-Belarus People's Assembly would assume, and opponents have expressed doubt about the amendments, calling them a sham exercise to help him to cling to power after the opposition rejected his election victory.
Opposition and public outrage over what they saw as a rigged vote sparked months of protests, bringing tens of thousands into the streets demanding Lukashenka step down and new elections to be held.
Security officials have cracked down hard on the demonstrators, arresting thousands, including dozens of journalists who covered the rallies, and pushing most of the top opposition figures out of the country.
Several protesters have been killed in the violence and some rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture being used by security officials against some of those detained.
Lukashenka has denied any wrongdoing with regard to the election and refuses to negotiate with the opposition on stepping down and holding new elections.
The European Union, the United States, Canada, and other countries have refused to recognize Lukashenka as the legitimate leader of Belarus and have imposed sanctions on him and several senior Belarusian officials in response to the "falsification" of the vote and the postelection crackdown.
