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Constitution of the Republic of Belarus of 1994

(with alterations and amendments)

Adopted at the republican referenda of November 24,1996 and of October 17, 2004

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Section 3. Electoral System. Referendum

Chapter 1. Electoral System

Article 64. The elections of deputies and other persons elected to state office by the people shall be universal: citizens of the Republic of Belarus who have reached the age of 18 shall be eligible to vote.

Citizens who are deemed incapable by a court of law or held in places of confinement in accordance with the verdict of a court shall not take part in elections. Persons in respect of whom preventive punishment-detention is selected under the procedure specified in the law on criminal proceedings shall not take part in voting. Any direct or indirect restrictions on citizens' voting rights in other instances shall be impermissible and punishable by law.

The age qualification of deputies and other persons elected to state positions shall be determined by corresponding laws, unless otherwise provided by the Constitution.

Article 65. Elections shall be free. A voter shall decide personally whether to take part in elections and for whom to vote. The preparation and conduct of elections shall be open and in public.

Article 66. Elections shall be held according to the principle of equal suffrage. Voters shall have equal number of votes.

Candidates standing for public office shall take part in elections on an equal basis.

Article 67. Elections of deputies shall be direct. Deputies shall be elected by citizens directly.

Article 68. Voting at elections shall be secret. The monitoring of voters' preferences while voting is in progress shall be prohibited.

Article 69. Public associations, work collectives and citizens shall have the right to nominate candidates for deputy in accordance with the law.

Article 70. Expenditure incurred in the preparation and conduct of elections shall be covered by the State within the limits of the funds assigned for that purpose. In instances determined by the law, the expenditure for the preparation and conduct of elections may be carried out at the expense of public associations, enterprises, offices, organizations and citizens.

Article 71. Elections shall be conducted by electoral commissions, unless otherwise specified in the Constitution.

The procedure governing the conduct of elections shall be determined by the laws of the Republic of Belarus.

No elections shall be held during a state of emergency or martial law.

Article 72. The recall of deputies shall be exercised to the order and instances as determined by the law.

The voting for the recall of a deputy shall be exercised to the order determined for the election of the deputy, and on the initiative of no less than 20 percent of the citizens eligible to vote and resident in the corresponding area.

The reason and order for the recall of a member of the Council of the Republic shall be determined by the law.

Chapter 2. Referendum (Plebiscite)

Article 73. National and local referenda may be held to resolve the most important issues of the State and society.

Article 74. National referenda shall be called on the initiative of the President of the Republic of Belarus, as well as on the initiative of the Council of the Republic or House of Representatives, which is taken at their separate sittings by a majority of the full number of deputies of each house, or on the initiative of no fewer than 450,000 citizens eligible to vote, including no fewer than 30,000 citizens from each of the regions (oblasts) and city of Minsk.

The President shall call a national referendum after its submission by the Council of the Republic and House of Representatives in accordance with the law, or by the citizens themselves.

The date of the referendum shall be no later than three months since the President issued the decree on holding a referendum.

The decisions taken by the national referendum shall be signed by the President of the Republic of Belarus.

Article 75. Local referenda shall be called by the relevant local representative bodies on their initiative or on the recommendation of no less than ten percent of the citizens who are eligible to vote and resident in the area concerned.

Article 76. Referenda shall be conducted by means of universal, free, equal and secret ballot. Citizens of the Republic of Belarus eligible to vote shall take part in referenda.

Article 77. The decisions adopted by referendum may be reversed or amended only by means of another referendum, unless otherwise specified by the referen-dum.

Article 78. The procedure governing the conduct of national and local refe-renda and a list of issues that may not be put to a referendum shall be determined by the law of the Republic of Belarus.

Section 4. The President, Parliament,Government, the Courts

Chapter 3. The President of the Republic of Belarus

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Article 80. Any citizen of the Republic of Belarus by birth at least 35 years of age who is eligible to vote and has been resident in the Republic of Belarus for at least ten years to the elections may be elected President.

Article 81. The President shall be elected directly by the people of the Republic of Belarus for a term of office of five years by universal, free, equal, direct and secret ballot.

Presidential candidates shall be nominated by citizens of the Republic of Belarus where the signatures of no less than 100,000 voters have been collected.

Presidential elections shall be called by the House of Representatives no later than five months and shall be conducted no later than two months prior to the expire of the term of office of the previous President.

Where the office of the President becomes vacant, elections shall be held no sooner than 30 days and no later than 70 days, from the day on which the office fell vacant.

Article 82. The elections shall be deemed to have taken place where over half the citizens of the Republic of Belarus on the electoral roll have taken part in the poll.

The President shall be deemed elected where over half the citizens of the Republic of Belarus who took part in the poll voted for him.

Where no candidate polls the requisite number of votes, within two weeks a second round of voting shall be conducted between the two candidates who obtained the largest number of votes. The presidential candidate who obtains more than half the votes of those who took part in the second poll shall be deemed to be elected.

The procedure governing the conduct of presidential elections shall be determined by the law of the Republic of Belarus.

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Article 84. The President of the Republic of Belarus shall:

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Chapter 4. Parliament - The National Assembly

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Article 91. The House of Representatives shall consist of 110 deputies. The election of deputies to the House of Representatives shall be carried out in accordance with the law on the basis of universal, equal, free, direct electoral suffrage and by secret ballot.

The Council of the Republic shall be a chamber of territorial representation. The Council of the Republic shall consist of eight deputies from every region (oblast) and the city of Minsk, elected at the meetings of deputies of local Councils of deputies of base level of every region (oblast) and the city of Minsk from their ranks. Eight members of the Council of the Republic shall be appointed by the President of the Republic of Belarus.

Elections for a new composition of the chambers of Parliament shall be set no later than four months and held no later than 30 days prior to the expire of the powers of the current Parliament.

Extraordinary elections for the chambers of the Parliament shall be held within three months since the premature expire of the powers of the chambers of the Parliament.

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Section 5. Local Government and Self-Government

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Article 118. Local councils of deputies shall be elected by the citizens of the relevant administrative-territorial units for a four-year term

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Section 8. The application of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus and the procedure for amending the constitution

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Article 140. The Constitution, laws on amendments and addenda thereto, on the entry into force of the said laws and instruments on the interpretation of the Constitution shall be deemed to have been adopted where no less than two-thirds of the elected deputies of both chambers of the Parliament have voted in favour of them.

The Constitution may be amended or supplemented via a referendum. A decision to amend or supplement the Constitution by means of a referendum shall be deemed adopted where a majority of citizens on the electoral roll have voted in favour of it.

Sections 1, 2, 4, 8 of the Constitution may be reconsidered only by means of a referendum.

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