MINSK, 25 November (BelTA) – President's Aide Aleksandr Kosinets has suggested amending the procedure the draft Constitution specifies for electing members of municipal councils of deputies as delegates of the Belarusian People's Congress. The official put forward the initiative at a joint session of the Constitutional Commission and the working group in charge of polishing the Constitution draft in the Palace of Independence on 25 November, BelTA has learned.
For now the draft Constitution expects the Minsk City Council of Deputies and the oblast councils of deputies to elect members of municipal councils of deputies as delegates of the Belarusian People's Congress. However, Aleksandr Kosinets demonstrated some simple math calculations to prove that these elections would be a formality if the procedure is left as it is. If about 900 delegates are to be elected for the Belarusian People's Congress, than municipal councils of deputies have to elect 128 people on the average in every region (the city of Minsk and the six oblasts).
Such elections will be purely mechanical and the meaning of people nominating their representatives will be lost, Aleksandr Kosinets believes. “Anyone can ask whether he or she may become a Belarusian People's Congress member today. The answer is yes. Then he or she may wonder how they can be nominated, who will elect them and where. We cannot answer those questions yet,” the president's aide noted.
Aleksandr Kosinets suggested regulating concrete provisions on forming the Belarusian People's Congress in a law. He suggested that Belarusian People's Congress delegates should be elected at the level of district councils of deputies. Then every district council of deputies will have to elect 4-5 people.
Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko responded to the proposal by saying: “This matter is still open to debate just like any other one. The Constitutional Commission is supposed to continue working on it. And there will be a nationwide discussion. It will be an open issue until the draft is ready and is on the table of the president, who will submit the draft for the referendum. What Aleksandr Nikolayevich [Kosinets] said here is quite feasible.”
