Constitutional Commission considers proposals for amending legislation

28 апреля 2021

The Constitutional Commission has held its third meeting today. It considered the proposals to amend the provisions on the functions and powers of the President of Belarus and the Council of Ministers. The Commission suggested to assign a number of powers of the President to the government, in particular, to expand the powers of the Prime Minister, increasing his role in the formation of the government by submitting proposals to the President on the structure of the government, the appointment of deputy prime ministers, ministers and other members of the government. It is also proposed to strengthen the government's role in the budgetary sphere at the constitutional level. At the same time, during the meeting it was noted that today there is no objective need to change the form of government in Belarus.

Sergei Sivets, Chairman of the Standing Commission of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus: "Most of the citizens support the current constitutional and legal status of the President as the head of state, the guarantor of state sovereignty and independence, the Constitution, rights and freedoms of citizens, the arbiter in relations between the branches of power."

At the same time, there are a number of initiatives related to changes in the electoral qualifications applied to candidates for the highest state office in the country. In particular, these initiatives concern both changes to the age and the residency requirement.

It is proposed to raise the minimum age for the President from 35 to 40-45 or even 50. The residency requirement for the head of state could be raised from 10 to 20 years. Another proposal is to introduce a ban on the possession and ownership of property abroad. As the experts note, this is a kind of legal prevention of affiliation and dependence of the President on foreign government or commercial structures. As it was reported earlier, the first meeting of the commission took place on March 31. The schedule of the meetings was approved: they will be held twice a month.