Belarus 1994
Belarus began its efforts to adopt a post-Soviet constitution on July 20, 1990. Following the provisions of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic constitution in force at the time, the Supreme Soviet named a 74-member Commission, composed of 63 deputies, 7 legal scholars, and four executive branch officials. The large number of deputies included practically all those who expressed interest in participating in the drafting; because of the large size of the commission, two subgroups were formed and each was asked to draft its own version of the constitution. The large size of the subgroups led to closed working sessions in late August and early September attended only by those members with substantive expertise, but drafting was still slow. A conference of experts was held in February 1991, to provide substantive ideas for the subgroups, but when the group headed by V. I. Gonchar, a lawyer from the Belarusian Institute of National Economy, failed to agree on any substantive points, the Commission dissolved the subgroups. In their place, a 14-member ‘working group’ was created, primarily out of the expert drafters of the first subgroup (led by V. I. Sholodonov, a deputy) and four of the most active members of the second group.
The working group had its first discussions of a joint draft on May 28, 1991; drafting was completed by a small group of principal drafters at a retreat in July. The first complete draft was presented on July 24, 1991, and circulated to deputies, government agencies, and social groups. (Twenty interim drafts were considered between May 1991 and August 1993.) The August 1991 attempted coup in Moscow complicated the picture immensely. The Supreme Soviet started discussions on a first draft on November 11, 1991, and published the draft in the press three weeks later, but the working group spent the next year re-working the draft almost completely. Over the next two years, the Supreme Soviet reconsidered five more drafts, slowly approving articles by the requisite two-thirds majority. High rates of absenteeism by majority (Communist) deputies, along with the deputies’ ability to propose amendments, allowed the small opposition grouping to block adoption of many articles and slowed the process dramatically. The opposition also tried a petition drive to force the dissolution of the Supreme Soviet and new elections, on the grounds that it was no longer representative. Between each round of debate in the Supreme Soviet, the Commission, the working group, and sometimes a group of senior politicians hammered out the remaining terms.
After an unexpected change in parliamentary leadership in January 1994, in which the new leader, Mechislav Grib, also took over the leadership of the Constitutional Commission, a final draft was completed by the end of February 1994, and the last articles were approved on March 3. On March 15, 1994, the 360-member Supreme Soviet voted to accept the constitutional draft in its entirety, with 236 votes for, 6 votes against, and 8 abstentions. The document came into force on March 30, 1994.