Pro-government parties dominate parliament
February 26, Pozirk. About two-thirds of the newly elected MPs, 70 out of 110, represent pro-government parties, based on the preliminary results of the February 20-25 election.
Members of the Biełaja Ruś party of Alaksandar Łukašenka’s supporters hold 51 seats; the Republican Party of Labor and Justice, eight seats; the Communist Party of Belarus, seven seats; and the Liberal Democratic Party, four seats. Nonpartisan candidates won 40 seats.
The elections for the House of Representatives and local councils took place amid mass-scale reprisals and a political landscape purge. Not a single opposition candidate was allowed to run.
In late 2022, Łukašenka called for disbanding parties whose activities run counter to “the basic principles of internal and foreign policy.”
A few months later, he signed a law requiring all parties to re-register based on more rigorous membership criteria. Soon afterwards, Justice Minister Siarhiej Chamienka said that the number of political parties in Belarus would drop from fifteen to three or four after the re-registration campaign.
In 2023, the justice ministry shut down 12 political parties, granting re-registration only to the pro-government Biełaja Ruś, Communist Party of Belarus, Liberal Democratic Party and Republican Party of Labor and Justice.
