Two years have passed since the signing by the Head of State Alexander Lukashenko of the Law "On Amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus", which introduces a single voting day for the elections of deputies at all levels. This was confirmed by the publication of a document on the national legal Internet portal of the country, the text of which noted - "To make the following amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus of March 15, 1994: article 67 shall be complemented with the following: "Elections of deputies are held on a single voting day." Both chambers of the Parliament of Belarus adopted a bill on relevant amendments to the Constitution on October 4, 2021.
The law was developed in connection with the appeal of both chambers of the Belarusian Parliament to the President on the issue of fixing in the Constitution the possibility of holding elections to local Councils of Deputies of the twenty-ninth convocation simultaneously with the elections to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus of the eighth convocation. Accordingly, local Councils of Deputies of the 27th convocation exercise their powers before the beginning of the powers of local Councils of Deputies elected on a single voting day. Amendments, according to the parliamentarians, will contribute to ensuring the efficiency, stability and continuity of the work of deputies of local Councils of Deputies, and will also avoid additional budget expenditures, organizational and time costs.
There is less and less time left until a single voting day in Belarus, at the same time, we can already talk about a wide range of advantages that appear due to the adoption and support of this decision.
First, more comfortable conditions are being created for voters, since during one visit to the polling station, votes are simultaneously cast for several deputies at once to various representative bodies of different levels: from local to regional to republican. Second, the financial costs of organizing the electoral process are reduced, budget funds are saved. For example, about 25 million rubles are needed to hold elections to local Councils of Deputies, their preservation in the budget creates a material opportunity to direct these monetary resources to solving issues within the framework of state social policy. Third, it becomes possible to remove excessive politicization of society, reduce the burden on people involved in the organizational component of the electoral process. This brings greater clarity and understanding to the electoral process itself, its mechanisms and components.
Thus, the electoral system becomes more transparent and predictable, the necessary conditions for strategic planning are created for all subjects of the election campaign – first of all, potential candidates who need to think about their initiative groups or other ways of nomination, work with people, work out their programs, think about media support. In turn, during the election campaign and on a single voting day, the voter will be able to clearly see and understand how the political and socio-civil vertical is being built. People have the opportunity to evaluate the approximate efficiency of a future deputy, to understand what to expect from him, to get an idea of how the chain of deputy activity from the top level to the grassroots territorial will work in the future.
We must be prepared for the fact that in different regions each voter will receive a different number of ballots. In Minsk, for example, citizens will be given only two ballots for voting: for the election of deputies of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly and the Minsk City Council of Deputies. And in rural settlements of each district of Belarus, including those that are part of the Brest region, residents will receive four ballots at once, for the election of deputies of rural, district, regional Councils and for the election of deputies of the House of Representatives. Perhaps it will not be easy to decide at once, you will have to strain yourself by comparing a considerable number of candidates, but at the same time, I think that in the end our citizens will make the right choice.