House of Representatives (Belarus)

House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus

Палата Прадстаўнікоў Нацыянальнага сходу Рэспублікі Беларусь
House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus ; Палата Прадстаўнікоў Нацыянальнага сходу Рэспублікі Беларусь
National Assembly of Belarus
Type
Type	Lower House
Structure
Seats	110
Political groups	Independents: 93 seats Communist Party of Belarus: 8 seats Belarusian Patriotic Party: 3 seats Republican Party of Labour and Justice: 3 seats Opposition (United Civic Party and 1 independent): 2 seats Liberal Democratic Party: 1 seat
Elections
Voting system	First-past-the-post
Last election	2016
Meeting place
	The House of Government; Minsk

Under the 1996 Constitution, the House of Representatives (Template:Lang-be, Palata Pradstawnikow, Template:Lang-ru, Palata Predstaviteley) is the lower house of the parliament of Belarus.

It consists of 110 deputies elected on the basis of universal, equal, free, and direct electoral suffrage by secret ballot (art. 91). It is a majoritarian system, with the outcome decided by overall majorities in single-member constituencies. Any citizen of 21 years is eligible for election (art. 92). The functions of the House are to consider draft laws and the other business of government; it must approve the nomination of a prime minister (art. 97); and it may deliver a vote of no confidence on the government (art. 97).

The upper house is the Council of the Republic.

Powers

Bills adopted by the House of Representatives are being sent to the Council of the Republic for consideration within five days, where they are considered within no more than twenty days.

Special powers that accorded only to the House of Representatives are:

consider draft laws put forward by the President or submitted by no less than 150 thousand citizens of the Republic of Belarus, who are eligible to vote, to make amendments and alterations in the Constitution and give its interpretation
consider draft laws, including the guidelines of the domestic and foreign policy of the Republic of Belarus; the military doctrine; ratification and denunciation of international treaties;
call elections for the Presidency;
grant consent to the President concerning the appointment of the Prime minister;
consider the report of the Prime minister on the policy of the Government and approve or reject it; a second rejection by the House of the policy of the Government is an expression of non-confidence to the Government.

In practice, the House of Representatives has little real power. Notably, it has little control over government spending; it cannot pass a law to increase or decrease the budget without presidential consent. It has been dominated by supporters of President Alexander Lukashenko since its inception. The Belarusian political system concentrates nearly all decision-making power in the president's hands, and there is almost no opposition to executive decisions.

Speakers of the House of Representatives

Name	Entered Office	Left Office
Anatoly Malofeyev	December 28, 1996	November 21, 2000
Vadim Popov	November 21, 2000	November 16, 2004
Vladimir Konoplev	November 16, 2004	October 2, 2007
Vadim Popov	October 2, 2007	October 27, 2008
Vladimir Andreichenko	October 27, 2008	Present