On October 14, the Public Constitutional Commission presented the people’s draft of the Constitution — a document written by a working group together with citizens, experts and representatives of the democratic forces. Its text is based on the draft Constitution of New Belarus and takes into account the real interests of people, including their suggestions and comments, as well as the results of a poll, where thousands of Belarusians expressed their opinions.
How exactly we created our, people’s draft of the Constitution — let’s remember together in cards.
We urge not only to study the project, but also to take part in deciding its further fate and the strategy of supporters of changes in the framework of the constitutional reform as a whole. We invite you to complete a new survey by October 31, which requires only one answer.
Check out our draft Basic Law and take part in the survey through the platform’s chatbot *Honest choice in Telegram or Viber.
What’s happening?
The Public Constitutional Commission (PCC) presented a people’s draft of the Constitution, written jointly with citizens on the basis of the draft Constitution of New Belarus. The document, which, in turn, was created over several years, taking into account the opinion of Belarusians, domestic and foreign experts, international experience and the shortcomings of the previous and existing editions.
While the Constitutional Commission of the regime is still preparing its draft of the Basic Law, in fact, in secret from the public, we have shown how democratic mechanisms should work. And in the coming days, citizens will express themselves whether they like the result and what further actions, in their opinion, should be taken. Learn the document and participate in the poll on the platform chatbots *Honest choice by the end of October!
Let us summarize what we have all achieved together and what we have arrived at as part of the People’s Constitution campaign over the past three months, and talk about the future.
Appeals to the Constitutional Commission
The Belarusians did not put up with the choice that the illegitimate power hopes to impose: between the existing Constitution, written by the dictator "for himself," and the new, even more beneficial to him.
Several thousand citizens sent appeals to the Constitutional Commission demanding that the people’s draft of the Basic Law will be submitted to a referendum, whether organized by the regime or initiated by society. In addition, representatives of the democratic forces and the PCC sent similar appeals to the House of Representatives.
Public Discussions
From July 6 to September 12, public discussions of the draft Constitution of New Belarus took place. Anyone could leave a proposal or ask a question on a site convenient for him or her: on the Kanstytucyja. online website, in the chatbot of the Svetlana Tikhanovskaya Office, in the social networks of the democratic forces. The response turned out to be so active that it was even necessary to extend the deadlines for receiving and processing opinions.
In total, the PCC received almost 1600 substantive proposals, questions and comments. The most popular sections are:
Section II: "Rights and Freedoms": more than 520 reviews
Section IV: "Legislative and Executive Branch": more than 360 reviews
Section I: "Fundamentals of the Constitutional System": more than 160 reviews
Proposals were recorded in a publicly available table with comments and decisions of the PCC. Those who disagreed with the verdict of the JCC on their own proposal could file an appeal — 5 people took advantage of this right.
People’s poll
In addition, on the platform *Honest Choice, a survey was conducted on a number of the most important provisions of the Constitution. Here’s what the citizens voted for:
the President should be elected by the people (92.3%), and ideally the head of the executive branch should be the Prime Minister (68.6%), independently appointed by the Parliament (68.7%)
government should be accountable to Parliament (90%)
Parliament should be bicameral (55.2%) and called Seim (26.1%)
judges should be appointed by a body independent of the executive and legislative branches (83.9%)
heads of executive bodies of local self-government should be elected by residents (65.1%) and be accountable to the Council of Deputies (74.8%)
the state languages in Belarus must be Belarusian and Russian (50.3%)
Discussion results
All the results of the poll were taken into account in the people’s draft of the Constitution. With one exception: after debates within the PCC working group and consultations with experts, the Parliament decided to leave the document unicameral.
As for the proposals of citizens, the PCC accepted dozens of them — and this is not counting the "technical" ones. Considering the reviews regarding the content of the people’s draft of the Constitution, the commission proceeded primarily from the persuasiveness of the arguments. Substantive, according to the JCC, proposals were discussed within the working group, evaluated from the point of view of world experience and expert recommendations — and only after that a decision was made on them, if necessary — by voting.
Who else made the decisions?
During the People’s Constitution campaign, the PCC held regular meetings not only as part of the working group, but also together with the Campaign Council (representatives of the Coordination Council, the Cabinet of Representatives of Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and the National Anti-Crisis Management), Belarusian and foreign experts. It was finally decided which norms and amendments and how exactly to integrate them into the people’s draft of the Basic Law. In addition, within the framework of the campaign, 4 open sessions of the platform of people’s representatives of the SHOD took place, where delegates and members of the PCC discussed feedback on selected topics with citizens.
The version of the document presented today was approved at a meeting of the JCC and the Campaign Council on October 8.
"People's Constitution" in numbers
Let’s take a look at our Basic Law campaign in numbers:
at least 1.5 million people have seen, heard and read about the campaign
almost 17,000 citizens have registered on the platform * Fair choice
3439 users reported that they sent an appeal with a requirement to consider our project to the Constitutional Commission
almost 8,400 Belarusians took part in a survey on the most important provisions of the Constitution
about 1600 proposals, questions and comments from citizens were submitted to the Public Constitutional Commission;
What’s next?
So, we have a people’s draft of the Constitution — you can get acquainted with it on the websites Kanstytucyja.online and Narodnaja.com. And now we want to ask you whether, in your opinion, it is ready to be submitted to a referendum, whether it suits each of you as a citizen, and what should be the further actions of Belarusians regarding the Basic Law of the country in the current realities. Until October 31, the organizers of the "People's Constitution" campaign are conducting a poll, where Belarusians express their opinion about the document. Join us!
To stay up to date with the news and be able to participate in the poll and other activities of the "People's Constitution" campaign, be sure to register on the platform *Honest choice:
Regardless of whether the illegitimate government will submit our draft Constitution to a referendum, we will not pass by the plebiscite itself announced by it. We are convinced that a boycott will be the best gift for the regime, that a referendum is an excellent reason to mobilize, and constitutional reform as a whole is an agenda that supporters of change must seize, hold and turn in their favor.
Exactly how we say "no" to the dictatorship on the election day assigned to it — we spoil the ballots, stay at the polling stations, something else — we will decide together. But let’s say it is necessary. And when we win, we will already have a truly popular draft of the Constitution — the foundation for the New Belarus, where there will be no place for dictatorship.
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