2019 Belarusian parliamentary election

Parliamentary elections were held in Belarus on 17 November 2019.[1]

2019 Belarusian parliamentary election

17 November 2019
All 110 seats in the House of Representatives
Turnout	77.22%
First party Second party Third party   Party KPB RPPS BPP Last election 8 3 3 Seats before 8 3 3 Seats won 11 6 2 Seat change 3 3 1   Fourth party Fifth party   Party LDP AP Last election 1 0 Seats before 1 0 Seats won 1 1 Seat change 0 1

Background

Parliamentary elections were required to be held no later than 6 September 2020. However, in his annual address to the nation on 19 April 2019, President Alexander Lukashenko announced that they would be held in 2019.[1] Lukashenko suggested Sunday 7 November or October Revolution Day as possible dates,[2] however the election was ultimately scheduled for 17 November 2019.

Electoral system

The 110 members of the House of Representatives were elected from single-member constituencies by first-past-the-post voting.[3]

Participating parties

Party		Leader	Ideology	Stance toward President Lukashenko	Number of participating constituencies	2016 result
						Votes (%)	Seats
	Communist Party of Belarus (KPB)	Igor Karpenko	Marxism–Leninism	Pro-government	54	7.4%	8 / 110
	Liberal Democratic Party (LDPB)	Sergei Gaidukevich	Pan-Slavism	Constructive opposition (self-proclaimed) Pro-government (de facto)	107	4.2%	1 / 110
	Republican Party of Labour and Justice (RPTS)	Vasil Zadnyaprany	Social democracy	Pro-government	43	2.9%	3 / 110
	United Civic Party of Belarus (UCP)	Anatoly Lebedko	Liberal conservatism	Opposition	56	2.2%	1 / 110
	Belarusian Patriotic Party (BPP)	Nikolai Ulakhovich	Socialism	Pro-government	16	2.2%	3 / 110
	BPF Party (BPF)	Ryhor Kastusiou	Belarusian nationalism	Opposition	38	1.7%	0 / 110
	Belarusian Left Party "A Just World"	Sergey Kalyakin	Democratic socialism	Opposition	33	1.4%	0 / 110
	Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Assembly) (BSDP)	Irina Veshtard	Social democracy	Opposition	43	1.3%	0 / 110
	Belarusian Party "The Greens" (BPS)	Aleh Novikaŭ	Green politics	Opposition	7	0.2%	0 / 110
	Belarusian Social Democratic Assembly (BSDH)	Stanislav Shushkevich	Social democracy	Opposition	20	N/A
	Republican Party (RP)	Uladzimir Belazor	Eurasianism	Pro-government	6
	Agrarian Party (AP)	Mikhail Shimansky	Agrarian socialism	Pro-Government	1
	Belarusian Socialist Sporting Party (BSSP)	Vladimir Alexandrovich	Social democracy	Pro-government	1

Opinion polls

Date	Polling firm	KPB	LDPB	RPTS	UCP	BPP	BPF	A Just World	BSDP	BPS	BSSP	BSDH	AP[lower-alpha 1]	KCP-BPF[lower-alpha 1]	SDPNS[lower-alpha 1]	RP	Independents/ None	Lead
July–August 2017	Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences	2.6	1.9	2.6	2.2	1.5	0.7	1.5	1.6	2.3	1.7	1.6	1.1	1.1	0.9	0.7	76.0	Tie
11 September 2016	2016 Parliamentary elections	7.4	4.2	2.9	2.2	2.2	1.7	1.4	1.3	0.2	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	67.0+9.6	2.0

Campaign

• 
  Street agitation near the shopping mall for one of the candidates in the 92nd "Aŭtazavod" constituency (Minsk)
• 
  Information board with 4 candidates competing in the 91st "Šabany" constituency (Minsk)
• 
  Street banner
• 
  Voter invitation card

Most opposition parties decided to contest the election but not all candidates were registered.[4][5] The Conservative Christian Party and the Belarusian Social-Democratic Assembly decided to boycott the elections.

Conduct

On 13 November, during preliminary voting, an observer in Brest published a video showing alleged ballot stuffing. Lidia Yermoshina, chief of the Central Election Commission of Belarus, denied fraud had taken place and stated that the observer's accreditation should be withdrawn as they were not allowed to film in a room with ballot boxes.[6] On 15 November, the observer's accreditation was withdrawn by the local electoral commission.[7] Another objection by the same observer concerning the number of preliminary votes was accepted.[8]

Students from some universities claimed that they had been forced to participate in preliminary voting, or encouraged to do so by being allowed absences from classes on Saturday and Monday. The universities denied the claims.[9] On 15 November Belarusian State Economic University students openly protested near the campus for similar reasons, citing the recently published video with one of their instructors (curators) demanding people participate in the preliminary voting.[10]

Election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said that “fundamental freedoms were disregarded and the integrity of the election process was not adequately safeguarded". A statement from the OSCE team cited concerns including what they described as the exclusion of many opposition candidates, limited opportunity for public campaigning and shortcomings during vote counting. OSCE observer Margaret Cederfeldt said the election had demonstrated "an overall lack of respect for democratic commitments". [11]

Election observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States described the elections as "competitive, open, free [and] transparent", adding that they considered them to be held in line with the country's Constitution and Electoral Code.[12]

Results

Only 21 of the 110 elected deputies were members of political parties, with all belonging to pro-government parties; the Communist Party of Belarus emerged as the largest party in the House of Representatives with 11 MPs, the Republican Party of Labour and Justice came second with six seats, the Belarusian Patriotic Party won two and the Agrarian Party and Liberal Democratic Party won a seat each.[13]

Unlike in the previous elections in 2016, in which two opposition candidates were elected, the opposition did not win a single seat; the opposition United Civic Party lost its sole seat and the only pro-opposition independent MP failed to be re-elected. All 110 elected representatives were described as "loyal" to President Alexander Lukashenko.[14] For all but one term since 2004, there have been no opposition MPs in the House of Representatives. However, since a 1996 referendum effectively concentrated all governing power in Lukashenko's hands, the House has been dominated by Lukashenko supporters even when opposition MPs have managed to get into the chamber, and the House has done little more than approve Lukashenko's policies.

44 of the 110 elected MPs were women, two were under the age of 30 and thirty were members of the previous parliament.[13]

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Communist Party of Belarus	559,537	10.62	11	+3
	Republican Party of Labour and Justice	355,971	6.75	6	+3
	Liberal Democratic Party	280,683	5.36	1	0
	Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Assembly)	84,790	1.61	0	0
	BPF Party	82,403	1.56	0	0
	Belarusian Patriotic Party	75,283	1.43	2	–1
	United Civic Party	72,192	1.37	0	–1
	Belarusian Agrarian Party	46,785	0.89	1	+1
	Belarusian Left Party "A Just World"	37,861	0.72	0	0
	Belarusian Social Democratic Assembly	23,164	0.44	0	New
	Belarusian Green Party	10,592	0.20	0	0
	Belarusian Socialist Sporting Party	7,905	0.15	0	New
	Republican Party	7,529	0.14	0	New
	Independents	3,178,037	60.31	89	–5
Against all		447,111	8.48	–	–
Invalid/blank votes		49,725	–	–	–
Total		5,319,568	100	110	0
Registered voters/turnout		6,880,605	77.31	–	–
Source: CEC (party affiliations), CEC (votes)

By oblast

Party	Minsk	Brest	Vitebsk	Gomel	Grodno	Minsk Oblast	Mogilev
Communist Party of Belarus	106,669	34,210	40,418	161,392	22,743	111,414	82,691
Liberal Democratic Party	83,042	18,785	23,063	48,239	49,814	41,701	16,039
Republican Party of Labour and Justice	75,525	104,281	13,917	103,572	4,036	42,614	12,026
United Civic Party	15,170	3,869	5,275	15,596	14,229	5,579	12,474
Belarusian Patriotic Party	29,136	41,256	0	0	0	3,430	1,461
BPF Party	8,473	6,573	9,240	5,859	9,506	2,552	40,200
Belarusian Left Party "A Just World"	9,398	9,202	3,610	6,862	5,399	2,886	504
Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Assembly)	23,031	34,677	3,723	2,218	7,901	5,989	7,251
Belarusian Green Party	3,500	0	0	0	2,568	4,524	0
Belarusian Social Democratic Assembly	14,561	909	0	0	1,105	6,336	253
Republican Party	2,719	0	2,146	0	0	2,664	0
Belarusian Agrarian Party	0	0	0	0	0	46,785	0
Belarusian Socialist Sporting Party	7,905	0	0	0	0	0	0
Against all	77,566	73,702	51,239	64,381	56,928	77,468	45,827
Invalid/blank votes	6,182	9,482	7,933	7,870	6,725	10,286	7,429
Total	814,206	778,292	703,631	879,624	594,940	884,916	663,959

International reaction

In its report following the elections, the OSCE stated that the legal framework in Belarus "does not adequately guarantee the conduct of elections in line with OSCE commitments and other international standards and obligations". As to the voting, the OSCE stated that " the lack of safeguards in election day and early voting procedures negatively impacted the integrity of the process." It also highlighted that "over 1,000 complaints and applications were filed with the election commissions, local authorities and courts, mostly related to appointment of commission members and candidate registration and deregistration".[15]

The US State Department made a statement, referring to the decision by the OSCE: "The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly, and the Council of Europe’s conclusions and observations about these elections are deeply troubling. We regret that alternative voices will not be represented in parliament."[16]

The European Union noted that the election "took place in an overall calm atmosphere" but stated that "there was an overall disregard for fundamental freedoms of assembly, association and expression".[17]

Notes

1. These parties do not compete in the election.

References

1. Lukashenka Calls Belarus's Next Presidential Election For 2020 RFE/RL, 19 April 2019
2. Александр Лукашенко назначил досрочные выборы в парламент Белоруссии Meduza, 19 April 2019
3. Belarus IDEA
4. "З выбараў сабраліся зьняць трох кандыдатаў «Эўрапейскай Беларусі»". Радыё Свабода (in Belarusian). Retrieved 2019-11-10.
5. "Belarus's 2019 parliamentary election: consequential or not? | BelarusDigest". Retrieved 2019-11-10.
6. Ермошина о «вбросе» бюллетеней в Бресте: Наблюдателя надо лишить аккредитации
7. В Бресте лишили аккредитации наблюдателя, который обвинил девушку в попытке вброса бюллетеней
8. «У мяне таксама абвастрылася хвароба». Назіральніка, які зняў на відэа спробу ўкіду бюлетэняў, наведалі назіральнікі АБСЕ
9. Студенты утверждают, что за досрочное голосование их освободят от занятий. В университетах это отрицают
10. Белорусские студенты протестуют: их принуждают досрочно голосовать на выборах в парламент
11. AP, Yuras Karmanau |. "Belarus election results: An opposition-free parliament". Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-11-27.
12. "Elections in Belarus hailed as competitive, open". eng.belta.by. 2019-11-18. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
13. "СВЕДЕНИЯ об избранных депутатах" (PDF). CEC Belarus. 18 November 2019.
14. Welle (www.dw.com), Deutsche. "Belarus election: No seats for opposition as Lukashenko maintains power | DW | 18.11.2019". DW.COM. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
15. Belarus, Early Parliamentary Elections, 17 November 2019: Statement of Preliminary Findings and Conclusions - Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, 18 November 2019]
16. Belarus Parliamentary Elections - Press Statement, Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary of State, November 20, 2019]
17. Statement by the Spokesperson on the parliamentary elections in Belarus, 18 November 2019