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 Belarusportal |
Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in Belarus on 26 January 2025 under the terms of the constitution. The president is directly elected to serve a five-year term.
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| Belarusportal |
Presidential elections are scheduled to be held in Belarus on 26 January 2025 under the terms of the constitution. The president is directly elected to serve a five-year term.
Mass protests erupted following the disputed outcome of the 2020 presidential elections in which incumbent Alexander Lukashenko claimed to have won a sixth term in a landslide. Opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya subsequently claimed to have received between 60 and 70% of the vote, enough to defeat Lukashenko in a single round, and asked the international community to recognise her as the winner of the election. [1] [2] [3]
On 17 August 2020 Lukashenko stated that the next presidential election could be held earlier than 2025 if a new constitution were to be adopted. [4] Tsikhanouskaya stated that she was ready to lead a transitional government and to hold early elections under international supervision. [5] [6] Lukashenko also said that he will resign if a new constitution is adopted. [7]
On 15 August 2024 independent media reported (citing BELPOL, an NGO consisting of ex-police and military personnel) that the government was planning to hold the next presidential election on 23 February 2025. [8] On 23 October 2024, the Central Election Commission of Belarus (CEC) announced that the election would be held on 26 January 2025. [9]
On 6 November 2024 the Viasna Human Rights Centre reported that Belarusian authorities had started a wave of arrests with over a hundred people detained in a week, many linked to online chats, at a time that Belarusian prisons were already overcrowded. [10]
On 25 February 2024, the day of parliamentary elections, Alexander Lukashenko announced his intention to run for a seventh term in 2025. [11] His candidacy, which was submitted by an initiative group, was accepted by the CEC on 29 October. On the same day, the CEC rejected the candidacies of For Freedom movement leader Yuras Hubarevich, citing "violation of the procedure for submitting documents", and Aliaxandar Drazdou. [12] On 4 November, two more candidates were rejected, Diana Kovaleva and Viktor Kulesh, while three other candidates were allowed to begin collecting signatures to support their candidacies, thereby taking the number of candidates with this status to seven. [13] These include Sergei Syrankov of the Communist Party, Oleg Gaidukevich of the Liberal Democratic Party, and former Interior Ministry spokesperson Olga Chеmоdanova. [14]
| Date | Agency | Viktar Babaryka | Alexander Lukashenko | Pavel Latushko | Valery Tsepkalo | Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya | Syarhey Rumas | Sergei Tikhanovsky | Maria Kalesnikava | Vladimir Makei | Zianon Pazniak | Andrey Dmitriyeu | Anatol Liabedzka | Vladimir Karanik | Maxim Znak | Veranika Tsapkala | Natalya Kochanova | Yury Karayeu | Kirill Rudy | Ivonka Survilla | Mikola Statkevich | Paval Sieviaryniec | Roman Golovchenko | Oleg Gaidukevich | Maksim Bogrecov |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1–10 Nov 2021 | Chatham House | 19% | 27% | 4% | 4% | 6% | 3% | 3% | 3% | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 30% | 30% | 11% | 8% | 10% | 5% | 8% | 8% | 4% | |||||||||||||||||
| 23 Jul – 3 Aug 2021 | Chatham House | 22% | 27% | 4% | 3% | 6% | 3% | 2% | 2% | 1% | 2% | 2% | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1% | - | - | - | - |
| 33% | 28% | 10% | 8% | 13% | 6% | 7% | 7% | 2% | 2% | 3% | 2% | ||||||||||||||
| 20–30 Apr 2021 | Chatham House | 25% | 23% | 8% | 3% | 4% | 3% | 3% | 2% | 1% | 1% | 1% | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2% | - | - | - | - |
| 33% | 25% | 14% | 9% | 10% | 8% | 8% | 8% | 2% | 2% | 2% | 4% | ||||||||||||||
| 12 Jan – 8 Feb 2021 | Ecoom | 2.5% | 66.5% | 1.3% | - | 1.5% | 0.4% | - | - | 2.4% | - | - | - | - | - | - | 4.4% | - | - | - | - | - | 3.8% | 1.9% | - |
| 14–20 Jan 2021 | Chatham House | 28.8% | 27.4% | 12.1% | 3.7% | 4.0% | 4.3% | 5.8% | 4.2% | 2.3% | 1.3% | 1.3% | 0.1% | 0.6% | 0.3% | 0.1% | 0.4% | 0.1% | - | - | 2.1% | 1.0% | - | - | - |
| 35.3% | 23.9% | 18.3% | 9.6% | 11.2% | 7.3% | 8.6% | 8.2% | 4.4% | 2.4% | 2.1% | 0.6% | 1.3% | 0.7% | 0.8% | 1.3% | 1.1% | 0.1% | 4.2% | 1.4% | 0.4% | |||||
| 13–18 Nov 2020 | Chatham House | 31.7% | 24.2% | 14.2% | 7.0% | 6.2% | 4.4% | 3.3% | 3.2% | 1.7% | 1.4% | 1.0% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.0% | - | - | - | - | - |
| 38.2% | 20.8% | 20.3% | 12.1% | 9.9% | 7.2% | 5.9% | 7.5% | 2.5% | 2.4% | 1.5% | 0.7% | 0.6% | 0.7% | 0.5% | 1.2% | 0.5% | 0.4% | 0.1% |
Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko is a Belarusian politician who has been the first and to date, only president of Belarus since the office's establishment in 1994, making him the current longest-serving head of state in Europe.
Belarus elects on national level a head of state—the president—and a legislature. The president is elected for a five-year term by the people. The National Assembly has two chambers. The House of Representatives has 110 members elected in single-seat constituencies elected for a four-year term. The Council of the Republic has 64 members, 56 members indirectly elected and eight members appointed by the president.
The Constitution of the Republic of Belarus is the supreme basic law of Belarus. The Constitution is composed of a preamble and nine sections divided into 146 articles.
The president of the Republic of Belarus is the head of state and head of government of Belarus. The office was created in 1994 with the passing of the Constitution of Belarus by the Supreme Council. This replaced the office of Chairman of the Supreme Council as the head of state. The tasks of the president include executing foreign and domestic policy, defending the rights and general welfare of citizens and residents, and upholding the Constitution. The president is mandated by the Constitution to serve as a leader in the social affairs of the country and to act as its main representative abroad. The duties, responsibilities and other transitional clauses dealing with the presidency are listed in Chapter Three, Articles 79 through 89, of the Constitution.
The Belarusian opposition consists of groups and individuals in Belarus seeking to challenge, from 1988 to 1991, the authorities of Soviet Belarus, and since 1995, the leader of the country Alexander Lukashenko, whom supporters of the movement often consider to be a dictator. Supporters of the movement tend to call for a parliamentary democracy based on a Western model, with freedom of speech and political and religious pluralism.
Parliamentary elections were held in Belarus on 17 November 2019.
Presidential elections were held in Belarus on Sunday, 9 August 2020. Early voting began on 4 August and ran until 8 August.
Sergei Leonidovich Tikhanovsky, also transliterated as Syarhey Leanidavich Tsikhanouski, is a Belarusian YouTuber, video blogger, dissident and pro-democracy activist. He is considered by Amnesty International to be a prisoner of conscience. He is known primarily for his activism against the government of Belarus's long-serving president, Alexander Lukashenko. In May 2020, he announced his intention of running for the 2020 presidential election, but he was arrested two days after the announcement, and his wife Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya then ran in place of him as the main rival to Lukashenko in the contested election.
Viktar Dzmitryevich Babaryka is a Belarusian banker, philanthropist, public and opposition political figure who intended to become a candidate in the 2020 Belarusian presidential election. He is considered a political prisoner after having his candidacy rejected, followed by being detained by the Belarusian government over charges of "illegal [financial] activities"; charges that are considered to be politically motivated.
Events in the year 2020 in Belarus.
Sviatlana Hieorhiyeuna Tsikhanouskaya is a Belarusian political activist. After standing as a candidate in the 2020 presidential election against the president Alexander Lukashenko, she has led the political opposition to his authoritarian rule through an oppositional government operating from Lithuania and Poland.
Hanna Anatolyeuna Kanapatskaya or Anna Anatolyevna Kanopatskaya is a Belarusian politician, former MP, lawyer, entrepreneur and candidate in the 2020 Belarusian presidential election. She is also a former parliamentary deputy, represented the United Civic Party of Belarus from 1995 to 2019 and served as an MP from 2016 to 2019. She is known for her political campaign on calling Belarus to be freed from Russian interference.
Siarhei Uladzimiravich Cherachen is a Belarusian businessman, politician and candidate in the 2020 Belarusian presidential election. He is the current chairman of the Belarusian Social Democratic Assembly.
The Coordination Council, originally known as the Coordination Council for ensuring the transfer of power is a non-governmental body created by presidential candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya to facilitate a democratic transfer of power in Belarus. The council, founded during the 2020 Belarusian protests in response to the disputed 2020 Belarusian presidential election, originally had 64 core members with a 7-member leadership presidium.
National Anti-Crisis Management (NAM) is a "shadow-government-like" organisation created in Belarus by Pavel Latushko in late October 2020 during the 2020 Belarusian protests with approval of the Belarusian Coordination Council. In 2022, a complementary cabinet structure, the United Transitional Cabinet, was created, with Latushko holding responsibility for the transition of power.
A constitutional referendum was held in Belarus on 27 February 2022. The referendum was ordered by President Alexander Lukashenko in January 2022. According to political analysts, changes to the Belarusian constitution were intended to solidify the power of Lukashenko's regime after the mass protests in 2020 and 2021, which challenged his rule and was brutally suppressed by police. More than 35,000 people were arrested, 1,070 of whom are acknowledged political prisoners. The changes to the Constitution allow Lukashenko to remain in office until 2035 and empower the All-Belarusian People's Assembly, an extra-parliamentary body dominated by government supporters. The changes also renounced Belarus's nuclear-free zone status, allowing Belarus to host nuclear weapons for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union; the lead-up to the referendum occurred as Russia amassed its troops in both Russia and Belarus in the prelude to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the election itself was held several days after Russia began its military offensive into Ukraine.
The United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus is a government in exile for Belarus that was formed in August 2022.
The 1999 Belarusian presidential election was a political protest action by members of Belarusian opposition who did not recognise the 1996 constitutional reform which extended Alexander Lukashenko's presidential term.
Valery Kavaleuski is a Belarusian diplomat and politician. On 9 August 2022, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya appointed Kavaleuski as Deputy Head and Representative for Foreign Affairs in the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus that is opposed to the de facto government of Alexander Lukashenko.
Parliamentary elections were held in Belarus on 25 February 2024. The country elected 110 deputies to the lower house of parliament and about 12,000 representatives of local councils.
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