Белорусская аграрная партия: история и самороспуск

Political party in Belarus

The Belarusian Agrarian Party (Белорусская аграрная партия; ) was an agrarian socialist political party in Belarus. It supported the government of Alexander Lukashenko. The leader of the party was Mikhail Rusy, who succeeded Mikhail Shimansky on 15 March 2008. In August 2023, the party dissolved itself.

The party advocates the reform of society on the principles of democratic socialism, the restructuring of the economy on the basis of private and state ownership of the means of production, including land. In agriculture it recognizes the forms: production cooperative, joint stock company, collective and state farm, peasant farm and small enterprise.

It was created in 1992 as the United Agrarian Democratic Party of Belarus (Объединенная аграрно демократическая партия Беларуси; ). On 28 January 1994, it changed its name into Agrarian Party. At the legislative election in 1995, the party obtained 33 out of 198 seats. The 1996 constitutional crisis split the party into those who supported Lukashenko and those who, together with Syamyon Sharetski (the first party chairman), remained in the Supreme Soviet. Syamyon Sharetski did not recognize the results of the 1996 constitutional referendum and did not submit to the decision to dissolve the Supreme Soviet. In July 1999, as the head of the legitimate legislative body recognized by the West, Syamyon Sharetski was adopted in Lithuania, where he stayed for two years. In July 2001, Syamyon Sharetski left for the United States and ceased his political activities. On September 22, 1999, the party was re registered. The IV Party Congress at the end of March 2000 announced its intention to cooperate with the authorities and elected Mikhail Shimansky as its chairman. On June 12, 2009, the Ministry of Justice of Belarus issued a written warning in connection with the fact that the party did not submit information about its activities to the Ministry. In 2000 and 2004 it only gained 5 and 3 seats in the House of Representatives, respectively. In 2008, the party was reduced to one seat. In the 2016 election, the party lost its remaining seat. It regained a seat in the assembly in the 2019 Belarusian parliamentary election.

ElectionParty leaderPerformanceRankGovernmentVotes%± ppSeats+/–1995Syamyon SharetskiNo dataNewNew2nd2000Mikhail ShimanskyNo data 29 2nd2004145,004 2.38 2 2nd2008Mikhail Rusy32,230 1.78 2 2nd201240,488 0.17 0 3rd2016Did not contest201946,785 0.89 1 5th