Opposition leader Svetlana Tihanovska has said the vote is an attempt by authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko to hold on to power.
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“You can vote in the republican referendum before the main voting day from February 22 to 26. No official confirmation is required for the reasons that it is not possible to come to the polling station on February 27,” the commission said.
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There will be only one question in the ballot paper: do you accept the changes and additions to the Belarusian constitution?
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A referendum will be deemed to have taken place if more than half of the citizens entitled to vote take part in it.
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The proposed constitutional amendments stipulate that the president may hold office for only two five-year terms, but these conditions will only apply to the next president-elect.
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If Lukashenko, who has been president since 1994, decides to run again in 2025, he will be able to remain in power for another ten years.
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The amendments also grant immunity to former leaders for crimes committed during their term of office and allow the deployment of nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory.
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The August 2020 presidential election was falsified, according to the opposition and the West. Post-election protests were brutally suppressed, to which the West responded by imposing sanctions on the Minsk regime.
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