conventional long form: Republic of Belarus
conventional short form: Belarus
local long form: Respublika Byelarus'
local short form: none
former: Belorussian (Byelorussian) Soviet Socialist Republic

BO

republic

Minsk

6 voblastsi (singular - voblasts') and one
municipality* (harady, singular - horad); Brestskaya (Brest),
Homyel'skaya (Homyel'), Horad Minsk*, Hrodzyenskaya (Hrodna),
Mahilyowskaya (Mahilyow), Minskaya, Vitsyebskaya (Vitsyebsk)
note: voblasti have the administrative center name following in
parentheses

25 August 1991 (Belarusian Supreme Soviet declaration of
independence from the Soviet Union)

Independence Day, 3 July (1944); note - represents
Minsk liberation from German occupation

30 March 1994; revised by national referendum of 24
November 1996 giving the presidency greatly expanded powers and became
effective 27 November 1996

based on civil law system

18 years of age; universal

chief of state: President Aleksandr LUKASHENKO (since 20 July 1994)
head of government: Prime Minister Sergey LING (acting since 18
November 1996, confirmed 19 February 1997); First Deputy Prime
Minister Vasiliy DOLGOLEV (since 2 December 1998); Deputy Prime
Ministers Vladimir ZAMETALIN (since 15 July 1997), Ural LATYPOV (since
30 December 1997), Gennadiy NOVITSKIY (since 11 February 1997), Leonid
KOZIK (since 4 February 1997), Aleksandr POPKOV (since 10 November
1998)
cabinet: Council of Ministers
elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term;
election last held 24 June and 10 July 1994 (next to be held NA;
according to the 1994 constitution, the next election should have been
held in 1999, however LUKASHENKO extended his term to 2001 via the
November 1996 referendum); prime minister and deputy prime ministers
appointed by the president
election results: Aleksandr LUKASHENKO elected president; percent of
vote - Aleksandr LUKASHENKO 85%, Vyacheslav KEBICH 15%
note: first presidential elections took place in June-July 1994

bicameral Parliament or Natsionalnoye Sobranie
consists of the Council of the Republic or Soviet Respubliki (64
seats; eight appointed by the president and 56 indirectly elected by
deputies of local councils for four-year terms) and the Chamber of
Representatives or Palata Pretsaviteley (110 seats; note - present
members came from the former Supreme Soviet which LUKASHENKO disbanded
in November 1996)
elections: last held May and November-December 1995 (two rounds, each
with a run-off; disbanded after the November 1996 referendum; next to
be held NA)
election results: after the November 1996 referendum, seats for the
Chamber of Representatives were filled by former Supreme Soviet
members as follows: PKB 24, Agrarian 14, Party of Peoples Concord 5,
LDPB 1, UPNAZ 1, Green World Party 1, Belarusian Social Sports Party
1, Ecological Party 1, Republican Party of Labor and Justice 1,
independents 61; 58 of the 64 seats in the Council of the Republic
have been appointed/elected

Supreme Court, judges are appointed by the president;
Constitutional Court, half of the judges appointed by the president
and half appointed by the Chamber of Representatives

Agrarian Party [Aleksandr PAVLOV,
acting chairman]; Belarusian Communist Party or KPB [Viktor CHIKIN,
chairman]; Belarusian Green Party or BPZ ;
Belarusian Labor Party or BPP ;
Belarusian Patriotic Movement (Belarusian Patriotic Party) or BPR
; Belarusian Popular Front or BNF
; Belarusian Social-Democrat or SDBP
; Belarusian Social-Democratic Party
Hramada ; Belarusian Social Sports
Party or BSSP ; Belarusian
Socialist Party ; Civic Accord Bloc (United
Civic Party) or CAB ; Ecological
Party or BEP ; Liberal-Democratic
Party or LDPB ; Party of All-Belarusian
Unity and Concord or UPNAZ ; Party of
Communists Belarusian or PKB ; Party of
Popular Accord or PPA ; Republican Party of Labor and
Justice or RPPS ; Women's Party Nadezhda
International organization participation: CCC, CEI, CIS, EAPC, EBRD,
ECE, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICRM, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, Inmarsat, Intelsat
(nonsignatory user), Interpol, IOC, IOM (observer), ISO, ITU, NAM,
OPCW, OSCE, PCA, PFP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO,
WMO, WTrO (applicant)

chief of mission: Ambassador Valery TSEPAKO
chancery: 1619 New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009
telephone:  (202) 986-1604
FAX:  (202) 986-1805
consulate(s) general: New York

chief of mission: Ambassador Daniel V. SPECKHARD
embassy: Starovilenskaya #46-220002, Minsk
mailing address: use embassy street address
telephone:  (17) 231-5000
FAX:  (17) 234-7853

red horizontal band (top) and green horizontal band
one-half the width of the red band; a white vertical stripe on the
hoist side bears the Belarusian national ornament in red