Parliament of the Republic of Belarus – The National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus – consists of two houses: the Council of the Republic and the House of Representatives. The Council of the Republic is a territorial representation body and consists of 64 members of which 56 are elected for a period of 4 years by indirect suffrage by deputies of local Councils of Deputies of the Republic of Belarus from six regions and a city of Minsk; 8 members of the Council of the Republic are appointed for the same period by the President of the Republic of Belarus. Any citizen of the Republic of Belarus over 30 who has been living in a relevant region or the city of Minsk for at least five years may be elected a member of the Council of the Republic. The House of Representatives consists of 110 deputies elected by citizens of the Republic of Belarus for a period of four years. Any citizen of the Republic of Belarus over 21 who has been residing in the country may be elected a deputy of the House of Representatives. The President of the Republic of Belarus calls elections to the House of Representatives of new convocation. Electoral legislation of the Republic guarantees democratic nature of nominating candidates for election. Candidates for election to the House of Representatives may be nominated in three ways: by political parties, by collection of signatures of electors and by labor collectives. The simplest way of nominating a candidate is by political party. The law entitles the supreme party body to nominate candidates to all 110 constituencies for election of Parliament members at a time provided that the party has been registered by the Ministry of Justice at least six months prior to calling new elections and has its subordinate organizational units in constituencies. If a candidate is nominated to the House of Representatives by collection of signatures, at least 1000 electors residing in the respective constituency have to support the initiative. The right to nominate a deputy to the House of Representatives may be exercised by any voting member of labor team in any organization located in a constituency which staff totals at least 300. Elections to the House of Representatives are held in single member constituencies. Normally, the difference between the numbers of electors in constituencies shall not exceed 10%. The Electoral Code includes regulations that guarantee the activities and the rights of candidates, fix the equality of rights and duties of candidates, regulate the rights of candidates for the use of mass media, conduct of pre-election campaign, and assistance of persons presenting a candidate. In the conduct of pre-election campaign all the candidates for elective offices shall have equal limits in their campaign spending. Funding from the state budget is allocated to a candidate for production of propaganda materials. All the candidates to the House of Representatives are entitled for free access to the state-owned television and radio as well as for free publishing of their pre-election programs. The Government assumes all expenses for production of information materials about candidates and provides them with premises for meeting with electors. The law does not provide for forming individual funds of candidate financing. The legislation establishes the conditions for only a common extra budgetary fund to be created under the Central Commission that shall be distributed between all candidates on a par basis. Other financial support of candidates is forbidden. The Electoral Code provides of observance of the international voting standards. Citizens are offered a wide choice of opportunities to exercise their voting right. Citizens staying abroad can vote at polling stations established by diplomatic representatives of the Republic of Belarus . Citizens are also entitled to vote at polling stations in places of their temporary staying (sanatoria, preventive clinics, hospitals, other stationary medical and preventive treatment establishments and military units). Provision is also made for pre-term voting not earlier than five days before the election date as well voting at the place of voter's staying. Procedure of the above-mentioned voting types is regulated by the Electoral Code in detail and shall be carried out strictly to the established requirements of keeping the expression of voters' will secret and election monitoring. The Electoral Code establishes a clear procedure of counting the votes. Elections are considered to pass through in the first round if the number of electors who have taken part in voting is more than half of electors in a constituency eligible to take part in the elections and put on list. A candidate to the House of Representative receiving more than half of votes of electors participating in the elections will be considered elected in the first round. If none of the candidates to the House of Representatives has received the required number of votes, the respective constituency shall conduct the second round of elections nor later than two weeks for the two candidates who have received the highest number of votes cast by electors. The second round of elections will be deemed accomplished if more than 25 per cent of electors in a constituency have taken part in the elections. The candidate receiving the highest number of votes cast by electors who have taken part in voting is deemed elected. Where the second round of voting is held for only one candidate, the candidate is deemed elected if he/she has received more than half of votes cast by electors taking part in the elections. Electoral rights of participants to the electoral process are protected by an opportunity of lodging a complaint to superior electoral commissions and court. Generally, any complaint lodged in the course of electoral campaign shall be considered within a three-day period and that in the voting day immediately. If the facts contained in complaints need further examination, they shall be considered no later than ten days. No government duty is levied on citizens filing a complaint against electoral commission with the court. Procurators' supervision is exercised over the observance of electoral legislation.
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On Elections to Parliament of the Republic of Belarus
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