Constitutional Commission initiates single day of voting in parliamentary election

19 мая 2021
The first big result of the nationwide dialogue and work of the Constitutional Commission was brought to the Oval Room of Parliament today. At a joint session,  the Council of the Republic and the House of Representatives passed an initiative to appoint a single day of voting in the country, to extend the powers of the current deputies of local councils, and to hold a new electoral campaign for local government after the referendum on the new Constitution.

The initiative was put forward by Natalya Jakubitskaya, in the Council of the Republic she is responsible for regional policy and local self-government. 

In many respects, a revolutionary innovation for the Belarusian electoral system caused a serious discussion in the Oval Hall of the Parliament. The arguments that were sounded in favor of the initiative were as follows. Elections to local councils will take place after the constitutional reform, as a result of which, judging by the proposals, the status of deputies will change - their powers will most likely be extended. Thus, they would not have to be re-elected after the referendum. Otherwise, their term of office would be only 1.5 years. In addition, the political and party systems will have more time to prepare for the election, parties will refine their programs and quietly reregister. This is democratic. 

It is important that the initiative on a single day of voting after the reform was supported by all the members of the Constitutional Commission and an absolute majority of lawyers and legal scholars, who have a profound knowledge of the issue.

And another important point of the initiative is that it saves budgetary funds. Local elections are technically the most complicated ones with direct budget expenditures exceeding 15 million rubles alone. The initiative affects the constitutional rights of citizens, so it must be discussed in the profile committees of both chambers of Parliament. Then the bill will be initiated in front of the head of state for further submission to the Oval Room. This is the course of action that was approved today in the Parliament.