The Communist Party of Belarus (CPB; russian: Коммунисти́ческая па́ртия Белару́си, Kommunisticheskaya Partiya Belarusi; be, Камуністы́чная па́ртыя Белару́сі, Kamunistyčnaja Partyja Bielarusi) is a
communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
and
Marxist–Leninist
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialect ...
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...
in
Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
. The party was created in 1996 and supports the government of president
Alexander Lukashenko. The leader of the party is
Aliaksiej Sokal. The party has had more seats in the
National Assembly of Belarus than any other party since the
2000 Belarusian parliamentary election
Parliamentary elections were held in Belarus on 15 October 2000, with further rounds of voting on 29 October, 18 March and 1 April. The vast majority of successful candidates, 94 of 110, were independents.Nohlen & Stöver, p261 Voter turnout was r ...
, the first national election it participated in. However, most seats in the Belarusian legislature are held by
independent politician
An independent or non-partisan politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent.
Some politicians have political views th ...
s.
Overview
The party suggested merging with the
Party of Communists of Belarus (PKB) on July 15, 2006. While the Communist Party of Belarus is a pro-presidential party, the Party of Communists of Belarus was one of the major opposition parties in Belarus. According to
Sergey Kalyakin
Sergey Ivanovich Kalyakin, ''Siarhiej Ivanavič Kaliakin''russian: Серге́й Ива́нович Каля́кин (born 16 June 1952) is a Belarusian opposition politician who is the current leader of the Belarusian Left Party "A Just Wo ...
, the chairman of the PKB, the so-called "re-unification" of the two parties was a plot designed to oust the opposition PKB.
The main foreign policy goal of strengthening the party proclaimed national security through the development of Belarus-Russia
Union State and the phase reconstruction voluntarily renewed Union nations, strengthening its political and economic independence.
The KPB is part of the
Union of Communist Parties - Communist Party of the Soviet Union (SKP - KPSS) and the
International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties (IMCWP); it enjoys relations with other communist parties in
post-Soviet states
The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...
and throughout the world to a much greater extent than the PKB, which is affiliated with the
Party of the European Left and is considered by many in the region to be "pro-Western."
At the
2004 parliamentary election, the KPB obtained 5.99% and 8 out of 110 seats in the
House of Representatives, 6 seats in
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
and even less in
2012
File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...
- where it won 3 seats.
Because of the party's support for President Lukashenko, 17 of its members were appointed by him in the country's
upper house
An upper house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house.''Bicameralism'' (1997) by George Tsebelis The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smalle ...
, the
Council of the Republic of Belarus, in 2012.
In 2014, the party increased its representation by obtaining 5 seats.
The party improved its result in the 2016 parliamentary elections, where it won 8 seats and then further increased it in the 2019 elections - where it won 11 seats.
During the
2020–21 Belarusian protests
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...
, the Communist Party of Belarus participated in a meeting in support of
Alexander Lukashenko.
Electoral history
Presidential elections
Legislative elections
Party leaders
References
External links
*
{{Belarusian political parties
1996 establishments in Belarus
Communist parties in Belarus
Far-left political parties
International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties
Neo-Sovietism
Political parties established in 1996
Political parties in Belarus
Eurosceptic parties