The House of Representatives of the Belarusian National Assembly gains full strength after two rounds of parliamentary elections (October 15 and 29, 2000) and by-elections (March 18 and April 1, 2001).

Several opposition political parties and public organizations (Belarusian Popular Front, United Civic Party) boycott the parliamentary elections, while others (Belarusian Social-Democratic Party "Narodnaya Hramada", Belarusian Party of Communists) nominate their candidates to run in the elections. Nearly all their nominees fail to win seats in the House of Representatives, however. Most of those who are elected to the lower chamber of the National Assembly have been openly supported by the executive authorities during the election campaign.

Belarusian Helsinki Committee announces that the procedure of forming the House of Representatives has been undemocratic and illegitimate. "The scale of irregularities during the election campaign cannot allow us to call that procedure democratic. Voters were forced to cast their votes, and the voting results were falsified," says a statement issued by the Belarusian Helsinki Committee. According to the chairman of the Coordination Council for Election Observation, independent observers have registered more than 5,000 instances violating the country's election law.

Technical Assessment Mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights issues the following statement: "The 15 October parliamentary elections process in Belarus failed to meet international standards for democratic elections, including those formulated in the 1990 Copenhagen Document of the OSCE. In particular, these elections fell short of meeting the minimum commitments for free, fair, equal, accountable, and transparent elections. Despite some improvements since previous elections, the process remained flawed."

At the same time, the official statement published by the delegation of the Russian Central Election Commission after its election observation mission reads that the election has been held in accordance with the Constitution and Election Law and that the Belarusian citizens have had good opportunities for realizing their electoral rights.

The members of the Council of the Republic, the upper chamber of the National Assembly, were elected in September-December 2000 at sessions of local Soviets in the Brest, Gomel, Grodno, Minsk, Mogilyov and Vitebsk regions and in the city of Minsk - eight members from each region and from the city of Minsk. Another seven members of the Council of the Republic, according to the Belarusian legislation, were appointed by the President in November 2000 - March 2001. One seat in the Council of the Republic, for one more person appointed by the President, is still vacant.