On Parliamentary Elections in the Republic of Belarus

The preparation campaign for the Parliamentary elections of October 17, 2004 has been launched in the Republic of Belarus. As a result of the first round of the campaign precinct election commissions have been formed registering 555 initiative groups on collection of signatures to support the candidates for the deputies of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Belarus.

In accordance with the Electoral Code, the nomination of candidates by collection of signatures shall be one of the three ways of participation in the Parliamentary elections. There also exist a possibility to take part in balloting to the lower chamber of Parliament on behalf of a working entity or political party. The initiative groups consisting of 10 or more members shall collect no less than one thousand signatures.

The political parties and social movements of Belarus are being actively engaged in pre-election activities.

As a chairperson of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Belarus on Elections and Holding of Republican Referenda Mrs. Lidia Ermoshina has informed, the representatives of 371 out of 555 registered initiative groups will collect signatures to support non-party candidates. There have been registered 51 initiative groups from the United Civil Party, 35 from the Belarusian Social and Democratic Party “Narodnaya Gramada”, 32 from the Belarusian Popular Front, 21 initiative groups belong to the Belarusian Communist Party as well as the Communist Party of Belarus.

Oppositional political parties have passed through the first round of the campaign with no major difficulties. The registration of 74 groups was rejected and six potential candidates to the deputies have decided to withdraw their candidatures on their own free will. One of the main reasons for rejection of the applications was the infringement of the principle of voluntary participation of a citizen in the activity of the initiative group (in certain cases citizens were put in the list of members of the initiative groups without their consent). Among other reasons of the rejection was the introduction of people into the lists of members which have not gained 18 years of age, as well as those without Belarusian citizenship.

Lidia Ermoshina has also noted the growth of social activity of Belarusian citizens. The number of initiative groups amounted to 555 as compared to 488 during previous Parliamentary elections.

The six acting deputies, Valery Frolov, Sergey Screbez, Vladimir Parfenovich, Vladimir Reznikov, Ivan Pashkevich and Igor Baslyk, members of the “Republic” group of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus have registered their initiative groups. According to Valery Frolov, the acting members of Parliament have not encountered any difficulties while registering the initiative groups.

The registration of the initiative group of the leader of the Belarusian Popular Front Vincuk Viacorka was successful.

The initiative group of the entrepreneur from Grodno Valery Levonevsky, who is currently in custody, was registered by the Central Election Commission on Elections and Holding of Republican Referenda on August 17. According to Lidia Ermoshina, “the Electoral Code does not envisage any restrictions on nomination of persons in custody as candidates to the deputies”.

The independent social organizations have noted the efforts of the authorities to organize the democratic electoral process with the full-fledged respect of rights of political parties and social movements in the framework of the existing legislation. For example, as stated in the press release distributed by the Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC) “… there was no arbitrariness during the registration of the initiative groups in precinct election commissions. The problems that appeared during the registration of some initiative groups… were handled after consultations with the Central Election Commission on Elections and Holding of Republican Referendums. According to BHC observers, the submission of the lists of members of the initiative groups and the registration of the groups by precinct election commissions was held, in general, without violations”.

The forthcoming Parliamentary elections shall become an important landmark in the development of democracy in Belarus and establishment of civil society in the country. The Government of the country, the Central Election Commission on Elections and Holding of Republican Referendums will ensure the democratic character of forming of the Parliament of the Republic of Belarus by means of strict and unconditional implementation of the main principles of the electoral legislation, such as universal character of vote, voluntary (free) participation of citizens in the electoral process, openness as well as equal and direct suffrage by secret vote.