Belarus mulls over mixed electoral system

Uladzimir Andreichanka, Speaker of the House of Representatives, has recently said in an interview to the Belarusian state TV that Belarus should move towards a majority-proportional electoral system where a part of the candidates enter parliament via party lists.

"As for further improvement of the legislation, I think we should gradually switch to the mixed electoral system. That is, to the majority-proportional system. It is used all over the world. This should not be done abruptly. But we must move in this direction," said Andreichanka.

The majorinar-proportional system is indeed quite popular in the world. In particular, it was used at the last parliamentary elections in Ukraine.

According to Andreichanka, representatives of five parties work in the Belarusian parliament today. The speaker of the House of Representatives recalled that any party can nominate its candidates in any district -- even if it has no primary organization there.

Head of the Central Election Commission of Belarus, Lidziya Yarmoshyna, has expressed the opposite view this week. She positively assesses the fact that Belarus has adopted a majority electoral system, where there is no voting on party lists. "Therefore, it is impossible to hide behind a popular brand -- everyone should be something," said Yarmoshyna.

The elections to the House of Representatives of the seventh convocation will be held in Belarus on November 17. A month before that, the registration of candidates will be over. Those willing to fight for seats in parliament should submit their documents to the election commission by October 7.