21.   The referendum however has the solid backing of the anti-base group set up a decade after Okinawa was returned to Japan.

22.   Wamytan said that if there was no consensus, a referendum would have to be staged.

23.   It also noted that the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe has determined that the referendum does not have legitimacy.

24.   Lukashenko has already announced that the referendum will have force of law while the Constitutional Court says it will not.

25.   Lukashenko insists that the referendum will have force of law, but the Constitutional Court says it will not.

26.   Most voters said they did not expect the referendum to have much impact on daily life.

27.   Rengo Okinawa officials conceded that a referendum would have no legal basis to order American troops from the islands.

28.   That referendum has yet to take place, stymied by disputes over voter eligibility.

29.   The constitutional court had ruled earlier that the referendum would not have force of law, but Lukashenko immediately issued a decree insisting that it would.

30.   The international community, which has backed the US-brokered accord, has said the referendum has no validity and Dayton cannot now be changed.