Elections in Belarus

Belarus

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Belarus

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Belarus elects on national level a head of state - the president - and a legislature. The president is elected for a five year term by the people. The National Assembly (Nacionalnoje Sabranie) has two chambers. The House of Representatives (Palata Predstaviteley) has 110 members elected in single-seat constituencies elected for a four year term. The Council of the Republic (Soviet Respubliki) has 64 members, 56 members indirectly elected and 8 members appointed by a head of state - the president.

Belarus is a state in which the president dominates. Opposition parties are allowed, but are widely considered to have no real chance of gaining power. The 13-17 October 2004 elections, according to the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission ^[1][2], fell significantly short of OSCE commitments. Universal principles and constitutionally guaranteed rights of expression, association and assembly were seriously challenged, calling into question the Belarusian authorities’ willingness to respect the concept of political competition on a basis of equal treatment. According to this mission principles of an inclusive democratic process, whereby citizens have the right to seek political office without discrimination, candidates to present their views without obstruction, and voters to learn about them and discuss them freely, were largely ignored. A Council of Europe report describes the danger that politicians risk of being assassinated, summarising an investigation into allegations that the present head of the Belarusian Special Rapid Reaction Unit (SOBR), Dmitri Pavlichenko, assassinated two senior politicians, a businessman and a journalist in 1999.^[3]

Electoral history

Elections of 2000 and 2001

In October 2000, parliamentary elections occurred for the first time since the referendum of 1996. According to OSCE/ODIHR, these elections failed to meet international standards for democratic elections. Lukashenko announced early in 2001 that presidential elections would be held. Western monitors made charges of nondemocratic practices throughout the election period, including charges vote counting fraud. These charges of irregularities led the OSCE/ODIHR to find that these elections also failed to meet Belarus' OSCE commitments for democratic elections. Although it was considered to be "puppet" parliament of Lukashenko, eventually there appeared dissenting voices, notably the parliamentary group "Respublika" (Valery Fralou, Uladzimir Parfianovich, Siarhiej Skrabiec, Vladimir Novosiad).

Elections of 2004

In Belarus, while there are political parties that either support or oppose President Lukashenko, the majority of the seats in the National Assembly are filled by those not affiliated with any political parties ("non-partisans"). However, there are three political parties who hold seats in the House of Representatives: the Communist Party of Belarus (8 seats), the Agrarian Party of Belarus (3 seats), and the Liberal Democratic Party of Belarus (1 seat). The other two parties that pledged their support to Lukashenko, the Belarusian Socialist Sporting Party and the Republican Party of Labour and Justice, did not secure any seats in October 2004 election. Opposition parties, such as the Belarusian People's Front and the United Civil Party of Belarus did not gain any seats. The UCPB and the BPF are some of the parties that comprise the People's Coalition 5 Plus, a group of political parties who oppose Lukashenko. Several organizations, including as the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe(OSCE), declared the election un-free due to opposition parties negative results and the bias of the Belarusian media in favor of the government.^[4] However, in constitutional as well as political terms, the House is of marginal importance. At the 2000 election, it took four rounds of voting before all the seats were filled; in the end, 86% of the elected deputies were independents, and the remainder were the representatives of parties traditionally loyal to the president (OSCE, 2000).

Election of 2006

See main article: Belarusian presidential election, 2006

The next round of elections took place on March 19th, 2006, and this election also included selecting the President. Lukashenko was opposed in the election by Alaksandar Milinkievič, a candidate representing a coalition of oppositional parties. Another opposition candidate, Alaksandar Kazulin of the Social Democrats was detained and beaten by police during protests surrounding the Lukashenko sponsored event, the All Belarusian People's Assembly. This event, among others, have caused for concern that the 2006 elections had irregularities.^[5] The President won a landslide victory, over 80% of the vote. It was however deemed unfair by the OSCE. (See Belarusian presidential election, 2006).

Belarusian parliamentary election, 2008

Latest presidential and parliamentary elections

These elections fell according to the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission [3] significantly short of OSCE commitments. Universal principles and constitutionally guaranteed rights of expression, association and assembly were seriously challenged, calling into question the Belarusian authorities’ willingness to respect the concept of political competition on a basis of equal treatment. According to this mission principles of an inclusive democratic process, whereby citizens have the right to seek political office without discrimination, candidates to present their views without obstruction, and voters to learn about them and discuss them freely, were largely ignored.

See also

• Election
• Electoral calendar

References

External links

• Central Election Committee of the Republic of Belarus (Russian)
• Parties and Elections in Europe
• Belarusian Parliamentary Elections in the Internet, 2004
• Information gathered ahead of the 2006 presidential election in Belarus
• Presidential Elections in Belarus 2006, Belapan Daily News
• ePolitics 2006: Online Campaigning in 2006 Presidential Election in Belarus
• review of the presidential elections in Belarus, Political Sphere, № 7 2006 "Rethinking Elections", summaries in English, articles in Belarusian
• Parliamentary Election in Belarus 2008 on Google Maps

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