Members of the upper house of the Russian parliament took part in observing the elections to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly in the Republic of Belarus.
A delegation from the Federation Council headed by Deputy Federation Council Speaker Konstantin Kosachev took part in observing the elections to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly in the Republic of Belarus from 23 February to 26 February. Russian senators worked as part of international observer missions.
Konstantin Kosachev coordinates the group of international observers from the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly (IPA CIS). Senators Valery Vasilyev and Nikolay Vladimirov from Russia, as well as Vadim Dengin from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (PA CSTO) were part of this group.
The group of observers from the IPA CIS included representatives from the parliaments of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, as well as officials from the Assembly and experts from the International Institute for Monitoring Democracy Development of the IPA CIS.
Konstantin Kosachev noted that the IPA CIS group was the most representative of all. “In all, it includes 44 parliamentarians and experts,” he said.
“The Republic of Belarus prepared well for the elections to the House of Representatives. Everything is in place for the international observers in the Belarusian elections to do their job properly,” the senator said after the observation mission ended.
“The voters were properly informed about the candidates, and the process of voting went smoothly. The organisation of the elections did not raise any questions with us,” Konstantin Kosachev said.
After analysing the electoral legislation of Belarus which was revised to reflect Constitution amendments passed in 2022, he concluded that it meets the highest international standards.
Konstantin Kosachev singled out for praise the Belarusian parliamentarians’ effective work to update the electoral legislation of the Republic.
As part of the visit, Russian lawmakers held meetings with Chair of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus Natalya Kochanova, Chair of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus Vladimir Andreichenko, and Chair of the Central Election Commission of Belarus Igor Karpenko.
During the first single voting day in the history of the Republic of Belarus on 25 February, 110 deputies of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly and 12,514 deputies of local councils were elected for a term of five years.