Opposition parties are allowed, but are widely considered to have no real chance of gaining power.
Before the adoption of the state constitution, Belarus had a prime minister, and had ever since breaking away from the Soviet Union.
At the end of the first balloting in June 1994, Kebich was slated to face the other candidate, Alexander Lukashenko.
The proposed referendums concerned closer ties with the Russian Federation and the President's power to dissolve the legislature.
The resulting total of 119 fell short of the two-thirds (174) legal quorum which would have allowed the new legislature to sit.
On 10 December, runoffs between the two leading candidates were held in the other 121 constituencies; 59 more seats were then filled so that, with an overall total of 198 Deputies definitely chosen, the quorum was finally reached.
The organization noted governmental control over the media, the government's interference into the voting process, obstacles to the opposition's activities etc.
The referendum was accompanied by a constitutional crisis, a conflict between president Alexander Lukashenko and the oppositional parliament.
[7] Alena Skryhan, the deputy head of Communist fraction of the Parliament in 1996 said that the referendum had led to monopolization of all branches of power by president Alexander Lukashenko.
Several organizations, including as the OSCE, declared the election un-free due to opposition parties negative results and the bias of the Belarusian media in favor of the government.
Universal principles and constitutionally guaranteed rights of expression, association and assembly were seriously challenged, calling into question the Belarusian authorities’ willingness to respect the concept of political competition on a basis of equal treatment.
According to this mission principles of an inclusive democratic process, whereby citizens have the right to seek political office without discrimination, candidates to present their views without obstruction, and voters to learn about them and discuss them freely, were largely ignored.
A Council of Europe report describes the danger that politicians risk of being assassinated, summarising an investigation into allegations that the present head of the Belarusian Special Rapid Reaction Unit (SOBR), Dmitri Pavlichenko, assassinated two senior politicians, a businessman and a journalist in 1999.
Lukashenko was opposed in the election by Alaksandar Milinkievič, a candidate representing a coalition of oppositional parties.
Another opposition candidate, Alaksandar Kazulin of the Social Democrats was detained and beaten by police during protests surrounding the Lukashenko sponsored event, the All Belarusian People's Assembly.
The Central Election Commission who declared this, its cause of the overwhelming popular fear of mass demonstrations and of the "radical political changes" demanded by the opposition.
Of the ten candidates, incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko was declared the winner by the Central Electoral Commission with 79.67% of the votes,[22] though opposition supporters decried the election.