Opinion: Giving people's congress constitutional status will strengthen foundations of Belarus' statehood

“In my opinion, making the Belarusian People's Congress a constitutional body is an attempt to strengthen the foundations of Belarus' statehood and to involve wider public in governance and the process of making strategic decisions,” Sergei Rachkov believes.

The nature and format of the Belarusian People's Congress already make it part of the constitutional field, said Nikolai Shchekin, Head of the Sociology of Public Administration Department at the Sociology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. “This is why this [making the Belarusian People's Congress a constitutional body] is a logical step that goes in line with the action plan on the country's development,” he noted.

According to Nikolai Shchekin, giving delegates of the Belarusian People's Congress a higher status will provide an impetus to the civil society development. “I do not mean that they should control everything. Not at all. Delegates should not supervise local authorities – they should cooperate with them and the government system in pursuing concrete goals. They should supervise the activities aimed at achieving these goals – not the government authorities,” he pointed out.