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Article 61
 

Procedure of Nomination of Candidates for the Position of the President of the Republic of Belarus

 

Nomination of a candidate for the position of the President of the Republic of Belarus by citizens shall be made by the initiative group of electors (hereinafter the "initiative group") including not less than 100 persons.

 

The list of the members of the initiative group indicating its head shall be submitted, together with the application on registration of the group, to the Central Commission not later than 85 days before the elections by the person who has the intention to be nominated as candidate for the position of the President of the Republic of Belarus. The list shall include the surname, name and patronymic name, the date of birth, the profession, the position (occupation), the place of work and the place of residence, the party membership of the person put forward for nomination as candidate for the position of the President of the Republic of Belarus as well as the surname, name and patronymic name, the date of birth and the place of residence of each member of the group and of its head.

 

The Central Commission shall, within a five-day period, consider the application, register the initiative group and provide the members of the initiative group with the respective certificate and the signature lists for the collection of electors’ signatures in support of the person put forward for nomination as candidate for the position of the President of the Republic of Belarus (hereinafter the "signature list"). Registration of the initiative group shall be denied in case of violation of the requirements of this Code. Denial of registration of the initiative group may be appealed against within a three-day period in the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus by the initiative group (the appeal must be signed by the majority of its composition). The Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus shall consider the appeal within a three-day period.

 

The signature list shall indicate the surname, name and patronymic name, the date of birth, the profession, the position (occupation), the place of work and the place of residence, the party membership of the person put forward for nomination as candidate for the position of the President of the Republic of Belarus as well as the surname, name and patronymic name of the member of the initiative group collecting signatures and the registration number of the initiative group. The signature list must include signatures of the electors living only in one place of population or, in towns divided into districts, in one district.

 

An elector shall have the right to sign only once in support of the person put forward for nomination as candidate for the position of the President of the Republic of Belarus.

 

Electors supporting the persons put forward for nomination as candidate for the position of the President of the Republic of Belarus shall indicate by their hand in the signature list their surname, name and patronymic name, the date of birth, the series and the number of the passport or the requisites of the identity card substituting the passport, the date of the signature and shall sign. The signatures shall be numbered.

 

Responsibility for authenticity of data contained in the signature lists shall be borne by the member of the initiative group who collected the signatures.

 

Participation of the administration of the organisation in the collection of signatures as well as compelling in the process of signature collection and remuneration of electors for making of the signature shall not be allowed. Violation of these requirements may be the ground for denial of registration or for revoking of the decision on registration of a candidate for the position of the President of the Republic of Belarus.

 

The member of the initiative group who collected the electors’ signatures must put his signature in his own hand on every signature list in the presence of the chairperson or a deputy chairperson of the town (in towns subordinated to Oblast and region), of the settlement or of the rural executive committee, of the head or a deputy head of the town district administration in whose territory the signatures were collected whereas in towns and urbanised settlements where town or settlement executive committees are not formed – in the presence of the chairperson or a deputy chairperson of the regional executive committee and shall be certified immediately by the seal of this body.

 

Electors who have nominated a candidate for the position of the President of the Republic of Belarus shall have the right, before submitting the signature lists to the regional, town or town district commission on elections of the President of the Republic of Belarus, to withdraw their signatures from the signature lists by lodging on this fact an application with the said commissions.

 

Signature lists shall be submitted not later than 50 days before the elections to the regional, town or town district commission on elections of the President of the Republic of Belarus which should, within a ten-day period, verify authenticity of the electors’ signatures in the signature lists submitted by the members of the initiative group and shall assure authenticity of the data on the number of such signatures. At least 20 per cent of the electors’ signatures in signature lists submitted to the respective commission shall be verified.

 

The signature of an elector may be recognised as authentic or inauthentic by the results of verification of authenticity of data in the signature lists.

 

Verification and account shall not cover electors’ signatures and the relevant data included into the signature lists but excluded (crossed out) by the member of the initiative group who collected the signatures before the signatures lists are submitted to the respective commission if this exclusion has been specially specified by him.

Inauthentic signatures shall be:

fictitious signatures;

electors’ signatures made in the name of different persons by one person or in the name of one person by another persons;

signatures of persons who do not enjoy suffrage;

signatures of electors who indicated in the signature list data that are not true to fact;

signatures of electors collected before the established time of nomination of candidates;

signatures of electors when one or several pieces of data required by this Code are absent;

signatures of electors living not in the same place of population or, in towns divided into districts, not in the same district;

signatures of electors if data on them has been put into the signature list not in his hand or in a pencil;

all signatures of electors in the signature list if the signatures have been collected by a person who is not a member of the initiative group or if the signature list has not been signed by a member of the initiative group, or has been signed by another member of the initiative group who did not collect these signatures, or has not been certified by the seal of the local executive or administrative body in whose territory the signatures have been collected;

signatures of electors collected with violation of the requirements of part eight of Article 61 of this Code.

 

When several signatures of one and the same elector in support on nomination of one and the same candidate has been found, only one signature shall be considered as authentic while the remainder of the signatures shall be considered as inauthentic.

 

If the number of inauthentic electors’ signatures found during verification constitutes more than 15 per cent of the number of the signatures verified, another 15 per cent of the electors’ signatures in the signature lists submitted to the respective commission by a member (members) of the initiative group shall be verified.

 

When the total number of inauthentic electors’ signatures found during verification constitutes more than 15 per cent of the total number of verified signatures in the signature lists, a further verification of signatures in the signature lists by the regional, town or town district commission shall be terminated and all the electors’ signatures in the submitted signature lists shall not be taken into account in determining the results of collection of signatures in the region, town or town district.

 

The Oblast and the Minsk City commissions on elections of the President of the Republic of Belarus may also, if required, verify authenticity of electors’ signatures in the signature lists within a five-day period.

 

On the basis of the records of the regional, town or town district commissions on elections of the President of the Republic of Belarus on the establishment of the number of electors who put their signatures in the signature lists for the nomination of a candidate for the position of the President and of the results of the verifications of authenticity of electors’ signatures in the signature lists made by the Oblast or the Minsk City commissions the Oblast or the Minsk City commissions on elections of the President of the Republic of Belarus shall summarise the results for the Oblast and the City of Minsk, make a record on it and forward it immediately to the Central Commission.