Nomination of candidates for delegates to Belarusian People’s Congress gets underway

Prospective delegates are nominated by organizational structures from the regions and the city of Minsk and are elected by the governing bodies of civil society entities from among members of these entities (they should be members of this civil society entity). There should be delegates from each region and the city of Minsk.

Prospective delegates to the Belarusian People’s Congress should meet a number of requirements. A delegate should be a citizen of the Republic of Belarus who is eligible to vote, who permanently resides on the territory of Belarus, has no outstanding (unexpunged) criminal record, has no citizenship of another state and documents of a foreign state granting benefits based on political, religious views or ethnicity. A person cannot be nominated simultaneously by a civil society entity and by local councils of deputies.

The nomination of candidates for delegates to the Belarusian People’s Congress will close on 31 March. The elections of delegates from local councils of deputies and civil society will be running from 1 to 10 April.

The CEC recalled that the maximum number of delegates to the Belarusian People’s Congress is 1,200 people. The delegates of the Belarusian People’s Congress are the president of the Republic of Belarus, representatives of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of power, local councils of deputies, and civil society.

A total of 290 nominees from local councils of deputies and 400 nominees from civil society will be elected. Each region will have its representatives. They will be nominated by local councils of deputies and elected by regional councils of deputies from among members of local councils of deputies of the regional, basic and primary levels. All members of the Minsk City Council of Deputies will become delegates of the Belarusian People’s Congress without elections.

Civil society delegates will be elected by the governing bodies of civil society entities from among members of these entities. To be able to take part in the elections of delegates of the Belarusian People’s Congress, civil society entities should have registration and operate in the manner established by law, have offices in the regions and the city of Minsk, have a national status of a public association, at least 100,000 of-age members (a requirement for public associations), represent an association of at least half of trade unions registered in the Republic of Belarus (a requirement for trade unions).

Meetings of the governing bodies of civil society entities should be held on 1-10 April 2024.

The CEC plans to sum up the results of the elections of delegates to the Belarusian People’s Congress by 18 April 2024.

25 April 2024 is the deadline for holding the first meeting of the Belarusian People’s Congress.