Editing Alexander Lukashenko (section)

===First term (1994–2001)===
{{see also|1994 Belarusian presidential election}}

A new [[Constitution of Belarus|Belarusian constitution]] enacted in early 1994 paved the way for the first democratic [[1994 Belarusian presidential election|presidential election]] on 23 June and 10 July. Six candidates stood in the first round, including Lukashenko, who campaigned as an independent on a populist platform. In an interview with ''[[The New York Times]]'', he declared: "I am neither with the leftists nor the rightists. But with the people against those who rob and deceive them."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Filtenborg|first1=Emil|last2=Weichert|first2=Stefan|date=28 September 2020|title='He stopped listening... and became cruel': Lukashenko remembered by former campaign manager|url=https://www.euronews.com/2020/09/24/he-stopped-listening-and-became-cruel-lukashenko-remembered-by-former-campaign-manager|work=Euro News|language=en|access-date=18 November 2020|archive-date=25 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225144648/https://www.euronews.com/2020/09/24/he-stopped-listening-and-became-cruel-lukashenko-remembered-by-former-campaign-manager|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Stanislav Shushkevich]] and [[Vyacheslav Kebich]] also ran, with the latter regarded as the clear favorite.<ref name='white05'>{{cite book | editor1-last = White | editor1-first = Stephen | editor2-last = Korosteleva | editor2-first = Elena | editor3-last = John | editor3-first = Löwenhardt | title = Postcommunist Belarus | chapter = Post Soviet Belarus | first = Ronald J. | last = Hill | publisher = Rowman & Littlefield | year = 2005 | pages = 6–7 | isbn = 9780742535558 | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=HPjVRSvhFRAC&pg=PA6 | access-date = 11 October 2015 | archive-date = 25 April 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160425235757/https://books.google.com/books?id=HPjVRSvhFRAC&pg=PA6 | url-status = live }}</ref> Lukashenko won 45.1% of the vote while Kebich received 17.4%, [[Zianon Pazniak]] received 12.9% and Shushkevich, along with two other candidates, received less than 10% of votes.<ref name="white05" />

Lukashenko won the second round of the election on 10 July with 80.1% of the vote.<ref name="white05"/><ref name="byind">Country Studies [http://countrystudies.us/belarus/39.htm Belarus&nbsp;– Prelude to Independence] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010070350/http://countrystudies.us/belarus/39.htm |date=10 October 2017 }}. Library of Congress. Retrieved 21 March 2007.</ref> The presidential inauguration was held in the halls of the [[Government House, Minsk|Government House]], on 20 July 1994, exactly ten days after the election, during a special meeting of the parliament, the [[Supreme Council of Belarus|Supreme Council]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=7 November 2015|title=Пять инаугураций в Беларуси. Как менялся президент, его клятвы и обещания с 1994–го по 2015–й|url=https://news.tut.by/society/471818.html|access-date=5 September 2020|website=Tut.By|language=ru|archive-date=29 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200929111032/https://news.tut.by/society/471818.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Shortly after his inauguration, he addressed the [[State Duma]] of the [[Russian Federation]] in Moscow proposing a new Union of [[Slavs|Slavic]] states, which would culminate in the creation of the [[Union State|Union of Russia and Belarus]] in 1999.<ref>''Alyaksandr Lukashenka'' in: [[Encyclopædia Britannica]] Online, 2009.</ref>
[[File:1996. Stamp of Belarus 0205.jpg|left|thumb|229x229px|President Lukashenko on a postage stamp from 1996]]
In February 1995, Lukashenko announced his intention to hold a referendum. For the young democratic republic this raised the controversial issue of the [[Russification of Belarus]]. Lukashenko said he would press ahead with the referendum regardless of opposition in the Supreme Council and threatened to suspend its activities if it did not agree to hold the referendum. On 11 April 1995, a vote was held in parliament on calling a referendum on four issues proposed by Lukashenko: 1) granting Russian the status of a state language, 2) changing state symbols, 3) on economic integration with Russia and 4) on giving the president the right to dissolve parliament. The deputies rejected all the issues, except for that which regarded economic integration with Russia.<ref>Навумчык С. [https://docs.rferl.org/be-by/2015/08/24/34b28591-5dfd-48bd-bc0c-30860f75cf2d.pdf Дзевяноста пяты.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030074452/https://docs.rferl.org/be-BY/2015/08/24/34b28591-5dfd-48bd-bc0c-30860f75cf2d.pdf |date=30 October 2020 }} (Бібліятэка Свабоды. ХХІ стагодзьдзе.) — Радыё Свабодная Эўропа / Радыё Свабода, 2015. — 320 с.: іл. {{ISBN|978-0-929849-73-7}}. p. 132–5</ref><ref>[https://nashaniva.by/?c=ar&i=262559 Сапраўдныя беларускія сімвалы: вось што трэба ведаць пра Пагоню і БЧБ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201121225512/https://nashaniva.by/?c=ar&i=262559 |date=21 November 2020 }}, [[Наша Ніва]], 22 лістапада 2020 г.</ref> It is unclear whether the president had legal power independently to call referendums, and if so, if they would be binding. Lukashenko stated that the referendum would be held despite the rejection by the deputies.

In protest, 19 out of a total of 238 deputies of the [[Belarusian Popular Front]] led by Zianon Pazniak and the [[Belarusian Social Democratic Assembly]] led by [[Oleg Trusov]] (b. Алег Анатолевіч Трусаў) began a hunger strike in the parliamentary meeting room and stayed there overnight on the night of 11–12 April. At night, under the pretext of a bomb threat, unidentified law enforcement personnel attacked and forcibly expelled the deputies. Lukashenko stated that he personally ordered the evacuation for security purposes. The Supreme Council accepted to hold the referendum on 13 April and in May 1995, Belarusian authorities held a [[1995 Belarusian referendum|referendum]] on the four issues.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rec.gov.by/refer/refer1995.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718093150/http://www.rec.gov.by/refer/refer1995.html|url-status=dead|title=1995 Referendum Questions|archive-date=18 July 2011}}</ref> The [[OSCE Parliamentary Assembly]] found neither the referendum nor the [[1995 Belarusian parliamentary election]] which took place in the same month to have met conditions for free and fair elections.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Report on parliamentary elections in Belarus – 14 and 28 may 1995|url=https://www.oscepa.org/documents/election-observation/election-observation-statements/belarus/statements-4/2009-1995-parliamentary-first-a-second-round/file|website=OSCE Parliamentary Assembly|access-date=13 February 2021|archive-date=23 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123111208/https://www.oscepa.org/documents/election-observation/election-observation-statements/belarus/statements-4/2009-1995-parliamentary-first-a-second-round/file|url-status=live}}</ref>

{| role="presentation" class="wikitable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="text-align:right"
!colspan=5|Results of the disputed 1995 referendum
|-
!|Question
!|For
!|Against
!|Turnout
!|Result
|-
|align=left|Do you agree with assigning the Russian language the status equal to that of the Belarusian language?||86.8%||13.2%||rowspan=4|64.8%||{{yes C}}
|-
|align=left|Do you support the actions of the President aimed at economic integration with Russia?||87.0%||13.0%||{{yes C}}
|-
|align=left|Do you support the suggestion about the introduction of the new State flag and State Coat of Arms of the Republic of Belarus?||78.6%||21.4%||{{yes C}}
|-
|align=left|Do you agree with the necessity of the introduction of changes into the acting Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, which provide for early termination of the plenary powers of the Supreme Council by President of the Republic of Belarus in the case of systematical or gross violations of the Constitution?||81.4%||18.6%||{{yes C}}
|-
|colspan=14 align=left|Source: Nohlen & Stöver<ref>[[Dieter Nohlen]] & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p252 {{ISBN|978-3-8329-5609-7}}</ref>
|}
[[File:RIAN archive 141088 Signing Treaty on Establishing Russian-Belarusian Union.jpg|left|thumb|235x235px|Official ceremony of signing Treaty on Establishing Russian-Belarusian Union at the Kremlin Palace, between the Russian President [[Boris Yeltsin]] and Belarusian President Lukashenko, 1997]]
In the summer of 1996, deputies of the 199-member Belarusian parliament signed a petition to impeach Lukashenko on charges of violating the Constitution.<ref>{{cite news | first = Marina | last = Babkina | title = Lukashenko Defies Impeachment Move | date = 19 November 1996 | agency = Associated Press | url = https://apnews.com/64b58a223cc28fbac1073c5433e78d1a | work = AP New Archives | access-date = 7 January 2013 | archive-date = 14 October 2013 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131014022052/http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1996/Lukashenko-Defies-Impeachment-Move/id-64b58a223cc28fbac1073c5433e78d1a | url-status = live }}</ref> Shortly after that, a [[1996 Belarusian referendum|referendum was held on 24 November 1996]] in which four questions were offered by Lukashenko and three offered by a group of Parliament members. The questions ranged from social issues, including changing [[Independence Day (Belarus)|the independence day]] to 3 July (the date of [[Minsk offensive|the liberation of Minsk]] from [[Wehrmacht|Nazi forces]] in 1944) and the abolition of the death penalty, to the national constitution. As a result of the referendum, the constitution that was amended by Lukashenko was accepted and the one amended by the Supreme Council was voided. On 25 November, it was announced that 70.5% of voters, of an 84% turnout, had approved the amended constitution. The US and the EU, however, refused to accept the legitimacy of the referendum.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.rec.gov.by/sites/default/files/pdf/Archive-Referenda-1996-Soob.pdf |title=Центральной комиссии Республики Беларусь по выборам и проведению республиканских референдумов |access-date=8 January 2013 |archive-date=13 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113110720/http://www.rec.gov.by/sites/default/files/pdf/Archive-Referenda-1996-Soob.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

After the referendum, Lukashenko convened a new parliamentary assembly from those members of the parliament who were loyal to him.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Bekus | first1 = Nelly | title = Struggle over Identity: The Official and the Alternative "Belarusianness" | publisher = Central European University Press | date = 2012 | pages = 103–4 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DiwPRpRYt2kC&pg=PA103 | isbn = 978-9639776685 | access-date = 11 October 2015 | archive-date = 24 April 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160424094528/https://books.google.com/books?id=DiwPRpRYt2kC&pg=PA103 | url-status = live }}</ref> After between ten and twelve deputies withdrew their signature from the impeachment petition, only about forty deputies of the old parliament were left and the Supreme Council was dismissed by Lukashenko.<ref name="google1">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jZJntMQtkSYC&pg=PA182|title=Belarus: The Last European Dictatorship|first=Andrew|last=Wilson|author-link=Andrew Wilson (historian)|date=6 December 2011|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0300134353|access-date=11 October 2015|archive-date=28 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160428161930/https://books.google.com/books?id=jZJntMQtkSYC&pg=PA182|url-status=live}}</ref> Nevertheless, international organizations and many Western countries do not recognize the current parliament given the way it was formed.<ref>[https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5371.htm U.S. Relations With Belarus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418020428/https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5371.htm |date=18 April 2021 }}. US Department of State. 19 February 2014.</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lsmgmbbKD9MC&pg=PA48 |title=Poland's Role in the Development of an 'Eastern Dimension' of the European Union – Andreas Lorek |isbn=9783640256716 |access-date=9 January 2013 |last1=Lorek |first1=Andreas |date=30 January 2009 |publisher=GRIN Verlag |archive-date=12 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512003509/https://books.google.com/books?id=lsmgmbbKD9MC&pg=PA48 |url-status=live }}</ref> Lukashenko was elected chairman of the [[Belarusian Olympic Committee]] in 1997.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.noc.by/eng/nokrb/htdocs/1/ |title=NOC RB |access-date=13 October 2007 |year=2002 |publisher=National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Belarus |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071017032540/http://noc.by/eng/nokrb/htdocs/1/ |archive-date=17 October 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> At the start of 1998, the [[Central Bank of Russia]] suspended trading of the [[Belarusian ruble]], which led to a collapse in the value of the currency. Lukashenko responded by taking control of the [[National Bank of the Republic of Belarus]], sacking the entire bank leadership and blaming the west for the free fall of the currency.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/68004.stm |work=BBC |title=Belarus appoints new national bank chief |date=21 March 1998 |access-date=7 August 2007 |archive-date=20 April 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100420231519/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/68004.stm |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Vladimir Putin 25 July 2001-5.jpg|thumb|Alexander Lukashenko standing with [[Vladimir Putin]] and [[Leonid Kuchma]] at the [[Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk|Slavic Bazaar in Vitebsk]] in 2001|232x232px]]
Lukashenko blamed foreign governments for conspiring against him and, in April 1998, expelled ambassadors from the Drazdy complex near [[Minsk]] and moved them to another building. The [[Drazdy conflict]] caused an international outcry and resulted in a travel ban on Lukashenko from both the EU and the US.<ref>{{cite news |first=Jan |last=Maksymiuk |title=Eu punishes Belarusian leadership |date=22 July 1998 |publisher=From: Radio Free Europe/Radio Libert |url=http://www.hri.org/news/balkans/rferl/1998/98-07-22.rferl.html#21 |work=RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 2, No. 139, 98-07-22 |access-date=7 January 2013 |archive-date=6 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206141633/http://www.hri.org/news/balkans/rferl/1998/98-07-22.rferl.html#21 |url-status=live }}</ref> Although the ambassadors eventually returned after the controversy died down, Lukashenko stepped up his rhetorical attacks against the West. He stated that Western governments were trying to undermine Belarus at all levels, even sports, during the [[1998 Winter Olympics]] in [[Nagano (city)|Nagano]], Japan.<ref>{{cite news |title=Poor Showing Reportedly Riles Ruler of Belarus |date=20 February 1998 |agency=Associated Press |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/longterm/olympics1998/sport/articles/ruler21.htm |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=7 January 2013 |archive-date=6 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106152124/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/longterm/olympics1998/sport/articles/ruler21.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

Upon the outbreak of the [[Kosovo War]] in 1999, Lukashenko suggested to Yugoslav President [[Slobodan Milošević]] that [[Yugoslavia]] join the [[Union State|Union of Russia and Belarus]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.serbia-info.com/news/1999-04/15/10890.html |title=The Statement of the Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko |access-date=13 October 2007 |date=15 April 1999 |work=Serbia Info News |publisher=Ministry of Information of the Republic of Serbia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927182051/http://www.serbia-info.com/news/1999-04/15/10890.html |archive-date=27 September 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref>