Belarus started voting Sunday in a referendum on whether tochange the country's constitution so that President Lukashenko canrun for a third term.

At a polling station, Lukashenko said, "I will try to workbetter and I will feel much more confident if the people say 'yes'."

"I do not work for any clans or groups, I work for the people,"he also noted.

All the 6,659 polling stations at home and 40 more abroadopened at 8:00 am local time (0500GMT).

In Sunday's voting, the Belarusians will also select the 110lawmakers from among 332 candidates for the House ofRepresentatives.

In the referendum, Belarusians will choose whether to remove aconstitutional limit obliging Lukashenko to step down in 2006.   More than 600 international observers from 54 countries andregions came to Minsk to monitor the referendum and parliamentaryelections.

Belarusian Central Elections Commission chairman LidiyaYermoshina said that Sunday's voting in parliamentary electionsand referendum has been proceeding without violations. "There havebeen no complaints today," she said. 

"An estimated 57.4 percent of voters voted in Belarus as of 14:00 local time (1100GMT), which makes it possible to say that theelections are valid," Yermoshina said.

The poll in Belarus will be ended at 20:00 local time (1700GMT)on Sunday, and its preliminary result will be published on Monday.

Lukashenko was elected Belarusian president on July 10, 1994,after garnering more than 80 percent of the votes. His five-yearterm was extended to 2001 following a 1996 referendum.   He was re-elected for another five years in the 2001presidential election.

Source: Xinhua