Liberal Democratic Party (Belarus)

In March 1990, the second political party after the CPSU was registered in the USSR - the Liberal Democratic Party of the Soviet Union , whose leader was Vladimir Zhirinovsky . Soon, a regional branch of the Liberal Democratic Party of the Soviet Union appeared on the territory of Belarus.

The constituent congress of the Liberal Democratic Party was held on February 5, 1994 in Minsk. On February 24, 1994, the LDP was officially registered by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus . On September 30, 1995, at the IVth Extraordinary Congress of the LDP, Sergey Vasilievich Gaidukevich was elected Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party.

In March 1999, the Sixth Congress of the LDP adopted the new Program, which proclaimed that the LDP is “a liberal-democratic political party whose main task is to build an independent democratic Belarusian state with an economy that effectively combines state ownership with private priority” ^[5] .

In 2000, at the initiative of the Liberal Democratic Party to participate in the parliamentary and presidential elections of 2001, the socio-political bloc New Belarus-Unity was also created, which along with the LDP included a number of public organizations. The “New Belarus - Unity” bloc supported the nomination of Sergei Gaidukevich as the President of the Republic of Belarus .

On August 14, 2001, the Central Election Commission officially registered Sergei Gaidukevich as a candidate for President of the Republic of Belarus.

In March 2002, a delegation of the Liberal Democratic Party took part in the 51st Congress of the Liberal International , which was held in Budapest . At this Congress, the LDP was admitted to the Liberal International as an observer.

In 1995 and 1999, the Liberal Democratic Party was re-registered by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus.

On December 20, 2003, at the 9th congress of the party, the highest governing bodies of the party were re-elected - the Chairman, the High Council, the Central Committee, and the Revision Commission. The congress again elected Sergei Gaidukevich as the chairman of the LDP. In addition to the LDP Chairperson, the party’s governing body, the Supreme Council, included the Party’s Deputy Chairperson, the Chairman of the Minsk City Party’s LDP Organization, Vladimir Ivanovich Karunas, and the Party’s Deputy Party Chairperson and the Chairman of the Minsk Region LDP Party, Anatoly Petrovich Khishchenko. Valery Halimov, the head of the department of organizational and party work of the apparatus of the Supreme Council of the LDP, was elected the coordinator for the Central Committee of the party. Mateykovich Natalia Tadeushevna, head of the secretariat of the apparatus of the LDP High Council, was elected Chairman of the LDP Audit Commission.

In October 2004, the Liberal Democratic Party took part in the preparation and conduct of elections to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus , putting forward its candidates in all 110 single-mandate constituencies throughout the country.

According to the results of the elections in the October constituency No. 99 ( Minsk ), the Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party Gaydukevich Sergey Vasilyevich was elected as a deputy, gaining 30 thousand votes, which amounted to 56.6%, defeating the former Chairman of the Supreme Council Mechislav Grib ^[6] .

On August 21, 2004, at the X Party Congress, Sergei Vasilievich Gaidukevich, Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, Chairman of the LDP High Council, was recommended to nominate himself for the post of President of the Republic of Belarus during the 2006 presidential election .

In 2010, the Liberal Democratic Party nominated Sergei Vasilievich Gaidukevich for the presidential elections in the Republic of Belarus. Having registered the largest initiative group (more than 10 thousand people) and having collected 100 thousand signatures necessary for registration, the LDP leader withdrew his candidacy from the election, calling it “a farce in which a self-respecting politician should not take part ”.

According to the official results of the Election to the Local Councils of Deputies of the Republic of Belarus (2014), not a single candidate from the party could become a deputy ^[7] .

The Liberal Democratic Party of the Republic of Belarus supports the signing of an agreement on the establishment of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

In 2016, before the election to the House of Representatives, 110 candidates for deputy from the party were announced, but in fact 90 candidates were nominated, of which 77 were registered.

In total, LDP candidates in the elections to the House of Representatives of the VI convocation received 218 081 votes (4.24% of the total). LDP candidate Anatoly Khishchenko won in 88 constituencies in the Mogilev region , receiving 59.1% of the vote

In the elections to the local Councils of Deputies of 2018 , out of 219 registered candidates, 4 managed to get into the local Councils of Deputies, among them, one each to the Minsk City and Grodno Regional Councils of Deputies, as well as 2 more candidates to the district councils ^{[8] [9 ] [9 ] ]} .

At the end of 2010, an agreement on political and cultural cooperation was signed between the People’s Party of the Republic of South Ossetia and the Liberal Democratic Party of Belarus.

On November 26, 2012, the LDP signed a cooperation agreement with the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia ^{[10] [11] [12]} .

Currently, the LDP and LDPR maintain friendly relations, the LDP Chairman Sergei Gaydukevich repeatedly visited Moscow , where he met with Zhirinovsky ^{[13] [2]} . Zhirinovsky also visited Minsk in 2001 and 2005 ^[14] . Disagreements between the parties occurred in 2001, when Gaydukevich decided to run in the presidential election, which was opposed by Zhirinovsky, who supported the policies of President Lukashenko ^{[15] [16]} .

On March 6, 2017, the LDP signed a cooperation agreement with the Polish party “Unity of the People” ^[17] .

Also, according to some sources, the party has agreements and cooperates with other European parties, such as the Austrian Freedom Party , the French National Front , the Italian party “Flame of the Tricolor” and New Azerbaijan ^{[1] [18]} .

On April 5, 2016, a meeting was held in Minsk to hold the “Congress of Patriotic Parties”, the meeting was also attended by the chairman of the Latvian Action Party Normund Grostins and the Polish security expert Slavomir Oždyak ^[19] .

The de facto LDP, despite the statements, is neither oppositional, nor even liberal-democratic in ideology. Evaluations of its ideology are extremely different - called populism , and pan-Slavism , and statism .

LDP is a clearly personified party and its policy is completely determined by leader Sergei Gaidukevich.

Emblem

The emblem of the party is a circle, in the center of which is written a schematic representation of the globe (top view). Against the background of the Earth, a contour image of the Republic of Belarus is projected. Along the edge of the emblem there is an inscription in Russian and Belarusian: “Liberal Democratic Party. Liberal Democratic Party. ” The territory of the country is painted green and has an inscription in the Belarusian language: “BELARUS”. The globe has a blue color. The image of the globe embodies the ideological orientation of the Liberal Democratic Party to bring socio-political and economic life in the Republic of Belarus closer to world standards, as well as the desire of the LDP to join the Liberal International. The contour image of Belarus indicates the territory in which the Liberal Democratic Party operates. Blue color is traditional for the image of the Earth. The green color that painted over the territory of the Republic of Belarus indicates a country's natural landscape.

Flag

The flag of the party is a rectangular cloth with a ratio of length and width 2: 1. The rectangle is divided into three parts by two lines emanating from its upper corners and converging in the middle of its lower side. The resulting triangles have the following colors: left rectangular - green, right rectangular - red, middle isosceles - white. On a white background there is an inscription in black in Russian: "Liberal Democratic Party." The color range presented in the image of the flag is characteristic of the national flag of Belarus and indicates the territory of the Liberal Democratic Party. Red color symbolizes the heroic past of the people. Green indicates a natural landscape characteristic of Belarus. White is a symbol of honor and nobility. Also, at some events of the party other flags are used - blue panels with the abbreviation of the LDP party in white.

LDP has 7 regional ^[20] organizations in all regions of Belarus and the city of Minsk:

Presidential Election

Legislative Election

• LDPSS
• LDPR
• Political Parties of Belarus
• Slavic Cathedral White Russia

• Official site of the Liberal Democratic Party (rus.)
• Liberal Democratic Party official Facebook community