Belarus’ March 2003 local elections were held for 1,672 local soviets (councils), including six regional soviets, the Minsk City Soviet, 116 district soviets, 11 city soviets in cities of regional subordination, 20 city soviets in cities of district subordination, 77 soviets in small towns, and 1,440 village soviets.
In the March 2 first round, 5,241,895, or 73.4 percent of the 7,104,428 voters on register, cast their ballots. The round resulted in the election of 23,275 soviet members, or 97 percent of the required number.
In the runoffs, held between March 9 and 16, 194 soviet members were elected in 202 districts.
According to the Central Election Commission, the total number of elected soviet members thus amounted to 23,469, or 97.8 percent of the required number.
Representatives of political parties won only 257 seats; 40 percent of them were members of the pro-government Communist Party of Belarus.
Opposition parties – the Belarusian Party of Communists, United Civic Party, Belarusian Popular Front and Belarusian Social Democratic Party “Narodnaya Hramada” – harshly criticized the elections as undemocratic and massively rigged. The Belarusian Helsinki Committee and other human rights organizations said that the poll did not meet democratic standards.
An attempt by a group of MPs to contest the election results in Minsk’s Malininsky district over suspected frauds proved unsuccessful.