4)
head of government: Prime Minister Sergey LING (acting since 18
November 1996, confirmed 19 February 1997); First Deputy Prime
Minister Petr PRAKAPOVICH (since 23 December 1996); Deputy Prime
Ministers Vladimir GARKUN (since 21 July 1994), Valeriy KOKAREV (since
23 August 1994), Vasiliy DOLGOLEV (since 30 October 1995), Vladimir
ZAMETALIN (since 15 July 1997)
cabinet: Council of Ministers
elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term;
election last held 24 June and 10 July 1994 (next to be held NA 2001
because of the additional two years provided by the November 1996
referendum); prime minister appointed by the president
election results: Aleksandr LUKASHENKO elected president; percent of
vote-Aleksandr LUKASHENKO 85%, Vyacheslav KEBICH 15%
note: first presidential elections took place in June-July 1994

Legislative branch: bicameral Parliament or Natsionalnoye Sobranie
established by the 27 November Constitution consists of the Council of
the Republic or Soviet Republiki (64 seats; 8 appointed by the
president and 56 indirectly elected by deputies of local councils for
four-year terms) and the Chamber of Representatives or Palata
Pretsaviteley (110 seats; note-present members came from the defunct
Supreme Soviet)
elections: last held May and November-December 1995 (two rounds, each
with a run-off; next to be held NA 2000)
election results: percent of vote by party-NA; seats by party-KPB 42,
Agrarian 33, CAB 9, Party of People's Concord 8, UPNAZ 2, SDPB 2, BPR
1, Green Party 1, Republican Party of Labor and Justice 1, BSP 1, BNF
1, Social and Sports Party 1, Ecological Party 1, independents 95,
vacant 62; note-the last election took place to fill seats in the
former Supreme Soviet (260 seats); after the November 1996 referendum,
seats for the Chamber of Representatives were filled by former Supreme
Soviet members as follows: PKB 24, Agrarian 14, Party of Peoples
Concord 5, LDPB 1, UPNAZ 1, Green World Party 1, Belarusian Social
Sports Party 1, Ecological Party 1, Republican Party of Labor and
Justice 1, independents 61; 58 of the 64 seats in the Council of the
Republic have been appointed/elected

Judicial branch: Supreme Court, judges are appointed by the president;
Constitutional Court, half of the judges appointed by the president
and half appointed by the Chamber of Representatives

Political parties and leaders: Belarusian Communist Party or KPB
[Viktor CHIKIN]; Agrarian Party [Aleksand