Home > 1. The principles of Europe's electoral heritage > BELARUS - Joint Opinion on the Electoral Legislation
 
 
 
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Paragraph 61
 

Article 48 of the Electoral Code provides that the electoral campaign is financed exclusively from the state budget. Neither this article nor any other article in the Code establishes the requirement that a specific monetary amount must be provided to electoral contestants. Private donations can only be made to the state budget, to be equally distributed between candidates. The limitation on private donations, coupled with the lack of a guarantee for timely access to a minimum amount of state funds, means that candidates and political parties have no ensured mechanism for communicating political messages. Conversely, the Electoral Code fails to ensure that voters are able to learn of contestants’ views and qualifications. The Code should be amended to provide minimum guarantees for the provision of political information and views by electoral contestants to voters.