2019 Belarusian parliamentary election

Parliamentary elections were required to be held no later than 6 September 2020. However, in his annual address to the nation on 19 April 2019, President Alexander Lukashenko announced that they would be held in 2019.^[1] Lukashenko suggested Sunday 7 November or October Revolution Day as possible dates,^[2] however the election was ultimately scheduled for 17 November 2019.

The 110 members of the House of Representatives were elected from single-member constituencies by first-past-the-post voting.^[3]

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  Street agitation near the shopping mall for one of the candidates in the 92nd "Aŭtazavod" constituency (Minsk)
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  Information board with 4 candidates competing in the 91st "Šabany" constituency (Minsk)
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  Street banner
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  Meeting of opposition candidates from the Youth Bloc on Zybitskaya street (Minsk)
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  Voter invitation card

Most opposition parties decided to contest the election but not all candidates were registered.^[4][5] The Conservative Christian Party and the Belarusian Social-Democratic Assembly decided to boycott the elections.

On 13 November, during preliminary voting, an observer in Brest published a video showing alleged ballot stuffing. Lidia Yermoshina, chief of the Central Election Commission of Belarus, denied fraud had taken place and stated that the observer's accreditation should be withdrawn as they were not allowed to film in a room with ballot boxes.^[6] On 15 November, the observer's accreditation was withdrawn by the local electoral commission.^[7] Another objection by the same observer concerning the number of preliminary votes was accepted.^[8]

Students from some universities claimed that they had been forced to participate in preliminary voting, or encouraged to do so by being allowed absences from classes on Saturday and Monday. The universities denied the claims.^[9] On 15 November Belarusian State Economic University students openly protested near the campus for similar reasons, citing the recently published video with one of their instructors (curators) demanding people participate in the preliminary voting.^[10]

Election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said that “fundamental freedoms were disregarded and the integrity of the election process was not adequately safeguarded". A statement from the OSCE team cited concerns including what they described as the exclusion of many opposition candidates, limited opportunity for public campaigning and shortcomings during vote counting. OSCE observer Margaret Cederfeldt said the election had demonstrated "an overall lack of respect for democratic commitments".^[11]

Election observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States described the elections as "competitive, open, free [and] transparent", adding that they considered them to be held in line with the country's Constitution and Electoral Code.^[12]

Only 21 of the 110 elected deputies were members of political parties, with all belonging to pro-government parties; the Communist Party of Belarus emerged as the largest party in the House of Representatives with 11 MPs, the Republican Party of Labour and Justice came second with six seats, the Belarusian Patriotic Party won two and the Agrarian Party and Liberal Democratic Party won a seat each.^[13]

Unlike in the previous elections in 2016, in which two opposition candidates were elected, the opposition did not win a single seat; the opposition United Civic Party lost its sole seat and the only pro-opposition independent MP failed to be re-elected. All 110 elected representatives were described as "loyal" to President Alexander Lukashenko.^[14] For all but one term since 2004, there have been no opposition MPs in the House of Representatives. However, since a 1996 referendum effectively concentrated all governing power in Lukashenko's hands, the House has been dominated by Lukashenko supporters even when opposition MPs have managed to get into the chamber, and the House has done little more than approve Lukashenko's policies.

44 of the 110 elected MPs were women, two were under the age of 30 and thirty were members of the previous parliament.^[13]

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Communist Party of Belarus	559,537	10.62	11	+3
	Republican Party of Labour and Justice	355,971	6.75	6	+3
	Liberal Democratic Party	280,683	5.33	1	0
	Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Assembly)	84,790	1.61	0	0
	BPF Party	82,403	1.56	0	0
	Belarusian Patriotic Party	75,283	1.43	2	–1
	United Civic Party	72,192	1.37	0	–1
	Belarusian Agrarian Party	46,785	0.89	1	+1
	Belarusian Left Party "A Just World"	37,861	0.72	0	0
	Belarusian Social Democratic Assembly	23,164	0.44	0	New
	Belarusian Green Party	10,592	0.20	0	0
	Belarusian Social Sporting Party	7,905	0.15	0	New
	Republican Party	7,529	0.14	0	New
	Independents	3,178,037	60.31	89	–5
Against all		447,111	8.48	–	–
Total		5,269,843	100.00	110	0
Valid votes		5,269,843	99.07
Invalid/blank votes		49,725	0.93
Total votes		5,319,568	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		6,880,605	77.31
Source: CEC (party affiliations), CEC (votes)