Parties betrayed again? :: Charter'97 :: News

June 29 was the final day of the second session of the Chamber of Representatives of National Assembly of Belarus. For members of parliament, this session was fruitful - they adopted 44 law drafts in the first reading, 29 draft laws in the second reading, they ratified 16 international agreements and discussed seven temporary presidential decrees. At the very end of the session the representatives decided on the two resonant documents - in the second reading, they adopted the new version of law "On public associations", and changes and amendments into the law "On political parties".

By the way, yesterday many of parliamentary members had no idea that these law drafts would be on the agenda. Earlier, the parliament planned to discuss these legal acts at its autumn session, however today they decided not to postpone the adoption of these documents.

When presenting the changes into the law "On political parties" to the members of parliament, the member of the Permanent Commission on Human Rights, National Relations and Media Alexander Svirid underlined that the modifications would bring the law into conformance with the Constitution, presidential decrees and other laws in force.

According to the amendments, to become a member of political party, one shall be a citizen of the Republic of Belarus of not less than 18 years of age, whose capability has not been restricted by court. Membership in more than one party is banned. Legal entities cannot be members of political parties.

The document sets forth that political parties shall be organized exclusively according to the territorial principle; they shall have Minsk city organization and oblast structures in more than half of oblasts in Belarus. Oblast structures shall be created within 6 months after party registration. Law-drafters believe that this rule would prevent the parties from artificial increase of their membership in separate regions, and it would encourage the creation of bigger and structured organizations.

The law draft introduces additional restrictions on funding the parties. Parties will be banned from accepting funding and property from foreign states and organizations, foreign citizens and stateless persons, anonymous donors, under-aged citizens of Belarus, religious organizations and legal entities which have being registered for less than a year before the day of donation.

One of the novelties in the law draft is a possibility of suspension of party activity and activity of party coalitions for up to 6 months. Such decision can be adopted only by the Supreme Court based on a relevant statement from the Ministry of Justice. Party activity cannot be suspended at the period starting with the day of declaring elections till the moment when elections results are officially published. To compare, legislation in force provides only for the procedures of issuing formal warning and liquidation.

Another novelty concerns the right for two and more parties to join into unions and associations.

According to the document, every political party shall be registered by the Ministry of Justice based on a statement from the Republican Commission on Registration of Public Associations. According to the legislation in force, such statement is not required.

As Alexander Svirid pointed out, in the process of law draft revision the Commission received 327 remarks and proposals from ministries and departments, as well as from 2 political parties - Party of Communists Belarusian (PKB) and Communistic Party of Belarus (KPB). According to the member of parliament, most of these remarks were in full or partially reflected in the final version of the law draft.

PKB leader Sergej Kaliakin believes that such inactive participation of parties (2 out of 17 currently registered) in the process of law-making can be explained by the fact that many parties exist only on paper, and others are oppositional ones and the do not believe that current parliament is able to make independent decisions.

Sergej Kaliakin has pointed out that the changes into the law would seriously deteriorate the position of political parties. Most of the amendments were adopted on the initiative of the Ministry of Justice, and this legalized the activities which have been illegal before.

The Law "On political parties" was adopted by the deputies of the 12th Supreme Council in October 1994. Up till that moment the activity of parties in independent Belarus was regulated by the Temporary regulation on the procedure of establishment and activity of public associations" adopted by the Council of Ministers of BSSR.