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SEPTEMBER 9, 2001 – THE ELECTIONS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS
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(Extractions)
Article 38. Citizens of the Republic of Belarus shall have the right to vote freely and to be elected to state bodies on the basis of universal, equal, direct or indirect suffrage by secret ballot.
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.
Article 79. The President of the Republic of Belarus shall be the Head of State, the guarantor of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, the rights and liberties of man and citizen.
The President shall personify the unity of the nation, the implementation of the main guidelines of the domestic and foreign policy, shall represent the State in the relations with other states and international organizations. The President shall provide the protection of the sovereignty of the Republic of Belarus, its national security and territorial integrity, shall ensure its political and economic stability, continuity and interaction of bodies of state power, shall maintain the intermediation among the bodies of state power.
The President shall enjoy immunity, and his honour and dignity shall be protected by the law.
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. The same person may be President for no more than two terms.
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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