New bill to make life harder for political groups – Viasna

January 5, BPN. The Viasna Human Rights Center says a bill on political parties and public associations will significantly damage the environment in which Belarusian political groups operate.

“Ahead of the New Year, the Belarusian government has submitted to Parliament a bill amending the laws ‘On Public Associations’ and ‘On Political Parties,’” Viasna said on its website on January 5.

“This bill significantly complicates the environment in which political parties exist. In particular, it requires that they re-register. For public associations, it introduces some positive technicalities as well as new negative provisos (without demanding that all public associations re-register, though),” it added.

The bill, if signed by Alaksandr Łukašenka, would prohibit emigrants from joining parties. In order to be registered, a party would have to have 5,000 members, branches in all provinces, and local branches in a third of the districts of each province and Minsk.

“Of the 15 parties registered in Belarus, only the two [pro-government] parties meet this criterion, the Communist Party of Belarus and the Republican Party of Labor and Justice,” Viasna said.

The bill would also expand restrictions on political party funding.