New Constitution views Belarusian People's Congress as supreme representative body

The Belarusian People's Congress may become the country's supreme representative body according to the new Constitution, BelTA learned from Chairwoman of the Council of the Republic of the National Assembly of Belarus Natalya Kochanova after the head of state met with the working group in charge of polishing the Constitution draft on 4 November.

Giving a constitutional status to the Belarusian People's Congress is one of the key novelties of the draft Constitution. The organization of Belarusian People's Congresses became a tradition a long time ago. Now the congress' functions will be stipulated by the Constitution.

According to Natalya Kochanova, the Belarusian People's Congress is supposed to become the country's supreme representative body. Respectively it is necessary to define functions of this body and who can be a delegate of the Belarusian People's Congress. “We've talked quite a lot about it, because a new body will appear in the precisely defined government structure in our country and it has to be integrated into our structure,” she said.

“I believe it is absolutely right because all the power in our country belongs to the people and certainly the people has to determine the key moments in history and development of our country,” the head of the upper chamber of the Belarusian parliament added.

According to Natalya Kochanova, functions of the Belarusian People's Congress may include some personnel decisions and the ability to rescind decisions of government agencies. “This government body will have serious authority,” she added.