President Alexander Lukashenko was extended from 1999 until 2001. During the referendum, 84% of the approximately 7.5 million voters approved the amendments. On November 28 of that year, President Lukashenko signed the changes into law. Other results not directly related to the voting included the expanding role of the Council of Ministers, which allowed it to deal with issues related to development of economic, social and political spheres within Belarus. The 1996 referendum was not, however, the first call to dissolve the Supreme Soviet. In 1991 and 1992, after the August coup in Moscow by senior CPSU officials, democratic forces in the government wanted to dissolve the Supreme Council permanently. The members of the Belarusian Popular Front pressed for a referendum, and despite achieving the number of signatures required by law at the time, the Supreme Soviet quashed the measure. The results of the 1996 referendum led to the exclusion of opposition parties from the new parliament. Due to problems associated with transparency and ballot stuffing, the European Union, United States and several other nations do not recognize the results of the vote. 2004 Along with choosing members for the National Assembly, Belarusian voters were presented with a referendum regarding presidential term limits. Before the vote, President Alexander Lukashenko was only allowed to serve two terms before the Constitution required him to step down. The voter turnout for the referendum was nearly 90%, with 77.3% of the voters agreeing to eliminating term limits. The changes were implemented on October 17, 2004. Like the 1996 referendum, the validity of the vote was brought into question. According to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), many polling places went without independent observers. The OSCE believed that the standards of the vote did not meet OSCE requirements for "free and fair elections". Data from other non-governmental organizations (NGO) point out that 50% of voters did not participate in the referendum, so they contend that the results reported by the government are flawed. Two years later, Lukashenko ran in the 2006 election and won 83% of the vote during the first ballot. With no term limits, Lukashenko states that, depending on his health, he will not retire from politics and might run for re-election in 2011. 2022 Criticism of constitutional changes Both referendums were severely criticized by the political opposition inside Belarus as well as by international observers such as the OSCE.