Moscow, AP/UNB, June 25 – Russia on Thursday opened polls for a week-long vote on constitutional changes that would allow President Vladimir Putin to stay in power until 2036. The vote on a slew of constitutional amendments, proposed by Putin in January, was initially scheduled for April 22 but was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The proposed amendments include a change in the constitution that would allow the 67-year-old Putin, who has ruled Russia for over two decades, to run for two more six-year terms after his current one expires in 2024.
Other amendments talk about improving social benefits, define marriage as a union of a man and a woman and redistribute executive powers within the government, strengthening the presidency.
The changes have already been approved by both houses of parliament, the country’s Constitutional Court and were signed into law by Putin. He insisted that they be put to a vote, even though it is not legally required, in what many see as an effort to put a veneer of democracy on the controversial changes.
Holding the vote in the middle of a pandemic has elicited public health concerns, because Russia is still reporting over 7,000 new virus cases daily and has 613,000 confirmed infections in all, the third-worst caseload in the world.
