A DICTATORSHIP has been established in the heart of the new Europe. The people of Belarus have voted to give their President sweeping powers.

They have also decided to vet the abolition of the death penalty to ban the free and unlimited sale of land and to declare July 3rd as their national day in order to mark the country's liberation by the Soviet "army in 1944.

More than 84 per cent of the electorate voted and more than 70 per cent backed the new undemocratic constitution which will validate the already despotic regime of President Alexander Lukashenko (41).

The figures look impressive on paper, but there is little doubt that the referendum has been rigged. Voting has been going on for nearly two weeks in a country whose media are controlled by Mr Lukashenko, opposition meetings have been banned and reliable sources have informed The Irish Times of a novel method used to ensure victory for the President.

Polling organisations visited would be voters asking them which way they intended to vote in the referendum. Those who intimated that their views ran contrary to those of Mr Lukashenko then had their names excised from the register.

Later today the parliament in Minsk will attempt to dampen Mr Lukashenko's victory celebrations by starting proceedings for his impeachment. It is certain, however, that Mr Lukashenko will ignore parliament's moves and enforce his rule - with the help of Belarus's KGB.

The only bright note in this scenario in which an anti democratic cuckoo has placed itself in the centre of the European nest is that tomorrow the last of Belarus's 16 nuclear tipped missiles is due to be handed over to the control of its giant neighbour, the Russian Federation.

Mr Lukashenko came to power in dramatic circumstances in the country's first presidential election in July 1994. Standing as an independent anti corruption candidate, he scored a shock victory over established politicians who, however, ensured a democratic transfer of power.

From then on it was downhill all the way for democracy. The country's independent media were rushed all newspapers and broadasting stations came under Mr Lukashenko's control, hundreds of anti Lukashenko demonstrators were arrested and jailed.

American balloonists competing in an international race were shot down and killed as they entered Belarussian territory, and the main opposition leader, Mr Zenon Pozniak, became the first European political figure to seek and be granted political asylum in the United States since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The battle then centred on the parliament and the courts which Mr Lukashenko saw as rivals for power. He set up a non elected body to counter parliament's power, sacked the heads of the constitutional court and of the electoral commission which was due to supervise Sunday's referendum.

The chairman of the constitutional court, Mr Valery Tichina, had declared that Mr Lukashenko's referendum proposals would turn Belarus into a "Haiti in the heart of Europe". The head of the electoral commission made the mistake of accusing Mr Lukashenko's supporters of organising electoral fraud in advance of the referendum not only was he fired but he was physically ejected from his office by the Belarussian KGB.

Having "won" the referendum, Mr Lukashenko will be able to continue as President until 2001, although he has already declared that he wants to be President for 20 years. The new constitution gives him the right to dissolve parliament's lower house if it refuses twice to approve his nominee for prime

A new upper house would be elected by regional officials, most of whom have been appointed by Mr Lukashenko, and eight members would be appointed personally by the President.

With the agreement of his handpicked upper house, Mr Lukashenko will be empowered to veto decisions of the lower house and dismiss the chairmen of the constitutional court, the supreme court, the central election commission, the prosecutors general and the head of the central bank.

The members of the constitutional court and the election commission will now be appointed by Mr Lukashenko and his upper house.

Procedure to impeach the President exists but is virtually impossible to put into place. Violation of the new constitution is not specified as a ground for initiating impeachment proceedings.

Expressions of concern at the creation of an "elected dictatorship" in the centre of Europe at the close of the 20th century have been flooding in. The Polish parliament Lithuania's former president, Mr Vytautas Landsbergis, who was recently returned to power in parliamentary elections and the Czech President, Mr Vaclav Havel, have already condemned Mr Lukashenko's and the political conflict they have engendered.

Mr Havel said: "I am convinced that it is only through respect for law and the principles of democracy that the current conflict can be overcome and an escalation averted."

WESTERN countries have opposition for some been expressing their time, but Mr Lukashenko has rounded on them. Last month when the ambassadors of Britain, Italy, Germany and France made their position clear to, the Belarussian foreign ministry, they were denounced on the state controlled television network for "gross interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state,".

Appeals from the European Union have also been ignored, and the Council of Europe, the continent's leading human rights forum, has no mandate in Minsk as Belarus is the only country from the European part, of the former USSR which is not a member of that organisation.

Only Belarus's giant neighbour, the Russian Federation, would appear to have the necessary influence to defuse the dangerous political situation. Mr Lukashenko favours eventual reintegration of Belarus and Russia, but even a late intervention by President Yeltsin and his Prime Minister, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, which appeared to resolve the crisis last Friday, petered out in failure.

Russia is the regional power in this case. It cannot afford to watch its neighbour and future partner collapse into chaos. So far, its intervention in the situation has been confined to the application of diplomatic and political pressure. There must be quite a few in the Kremlin now who are tempted to take more dramatic action.