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Republic of Belarus Page |
Welcome to ElectionInfo.com's pages on Republic of Belarus
Official Name: Republic of Belarus
Capital: Minsk
Area: 207,600 square kilometres ( 80,155 square miles )
Major cities (Population)
Minsk 1,766,000 (1995)
Gomel 506,000 (1990 estimate)
Mogilev 363,000 (1990 estimate)
Vitebsk 361,500 (1991 estimate)
Grodno 277,000 (1990 estimate)
Brest 269,000 (1990 estimate)
Population: 10,141,000 (1995 estimate)
Population growth rate: -0.1 per cent (1990-1995 average)
Type of government: Republic
Independence: 25 August 1991 (from Union of Soviet Socialist Republics [USSR])
Constitution: Adopted 28 March 1994
Voting Rights: Universal at age 18
Government
Under a new constitution adopted in March 1994, a president is elected by the electorate to serve a five-year term. The president may not serve more than two terms. A 300-member parliament, called the Supreme Soviet, or Soim, is the country's law-making body. Members of the Supreme Soviet are directly elected to serve five-year terms. With the approval of the Supreme Soviet, the president appoints a prime minister and a cabinet.
Recent History
The republic of Belarus became independent with the collapse of communism in the USSR in the late 1980s. The new nation played a leading role in the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and hosted the first CIS summit meeting in December 1991.
In July 1993 Belarus became a signatory of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. In that same year, Belarus committed itself to the removal of all nuclear weapons by 1996. The 1994 constitution proclaimed the country to be a neutral, non-nuclear state. In July 1994, when the country held its first-ever presidential elections, populist Aleksandr Lukashenko won a landslide victory over the incumbent prime minister, Vyacheslav Kebich. Under Lukashenko's leadership, Belarus sought close economic ties with Russia, but his policies were resisted by those who felt that his plan to integrate the two countries' economies would give too much power to Russia. In September 1994 Russia announced that the Belarusian economy was too weak for Russia to proceed with the announced economic merger. Belarus therefore decided to issue its own currency, the Belarusian ruble, which became the only legal tender in October 1994. In early 1995 the country joined the Partnership for Peace programme as a precursor to becoming a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Belarus also resolved several outstanding border issues with neighbouring Lithuania. The country's economy continued to stumble, however, and in 1995 Belarus was one of the least economically stable of the former Soviet republics.
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