MINSK, September 9. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said he is ready to hold an early presidential election in his country.
"If we amend the Constitution, we must enshrine presidential elections in the Constitution, but [enshrine] separately, and I am inclined to do that, in order to hold early presidential elections. I do not rule out that," he said in an interview with Russian media outlets broadcast by the RT television channel on Wednesday.
Lukashenko stressed that he was leaning toward that decision. "No one told me about that, and this is the first time I telling you that. I am inclined to do that," he noted.
However, he did not give the exact date for the election. "I am not speaking about the dates. We need to adopt the Constitution and hold elections to local government bodies. If a presidential election is held ahead of time, it should probably take place earlier than parliamentary elections. After all, the parliament should be preserved until a new president appears, and then hold parliamentary elections, according to the new Constitution, it will be already approved," he said, repeating, "If we hold a snap presidential election."