United Civic Party Аб'яднаная грамадзянская партыя Объединённая гражданская партия | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | UCP (English) АГП (Belarusian) ОГП (Russian) |
| Leader | Mikalaj Kazloŭ |
| Founder | Stanislaŭ Bahdankievič |
| Founded | 1 October 1995; 30 years ago (1995-10-01) |
| Banned | 15 August 2023; 2 years ago (2023-08-15) |
| Merger of | United Democratic Party, Civic Party |
| Headquarters | 22th Building, Charužaj St,Minsk,Belarus |
| Youth wing | Young Democrats |
| Membership(2011) | 4,000 |
| Ideology | Conservatism Economic liberalism Pro-Europeanism |
| Political position | Centre-right[1] |
| National affiliation | United Democratic Forces of Belarus |
| European affiliation | European People's Party(observer) |
| International affiliation | International Democrat Union |
| Colours | Red White |
| Slogan | «Construct a new, keep the best» (Belarusian:«Пабудуем новае, захаваем лепшае») |
| House of Representatives | 0 / 110 |
| Council of the Republic | 0 / 64 |
| Local seats | 0 / 18,110 |
| Website | |
| ucpb.info | |
TheUnited Civic Party (UCP;Belarusian:Аб'яднаная грамадзянская партыя; АГП,romanized: Abjadnanaja hramadzianskaja partyja; AHP;Russian:Объединённая гражданская партия; ОГП,romanized: Obyedinonnaya grazhdanskaya partiya; OGP) is a bannedConservative[1][2] andliberal[3][4]political party inBelarus. The party opposes the government ofAlexander Lukashenko and has participated in the country's elections on a few occasions, but it did not have a single member in theBelarusian parliament until one member was elected during the2016 elections. It claims that its lack of seats is due to the unfairness of the election process.
Famous party members are former Prime MinisterMichaił Čyhir, the mysteriously disappeared politiciansJury Zacharanka andViktar Hančar, andHienadź Karpienka, who died prematurely.
The party was established in 1995 as a result of a merger of two like-minded parties, theUnited Democratic Party (formed in 1990) and theCivil Party (formed in 1994).[5] The party's chairman isMikałaj Kazłoŭ;[6] deputy chairmen areAlaksandar Dabravolski andJarasłaŭ Ramančuk.
At thelegislative elections, 13–17 October 2004, the party was part of thePeople's Coalition 5 Plus, which did not secure any seats. According to theOSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission, these elections fell significantly short of OSCE commitments. Universal principles and constitutionally guaranteed rights of expression, association and assembly were seriously challenged, calling into question the Belarusian authorities’ willingness to respect the concept of political competition on a basis of equal treatment. According to this mission principles of an inclusive democratic process, whereby citizens have the right to seek political office without discrimination, candidates to present their views without obstruction, and voters to learn about them and discuss them freely, were largely ignored.[7]
In the2008 elections, the party ran on its own, finishing in third place with 2.33 percent of the official vote and no seats gained. As with most of the opposition parties, the UCP boycotted the2012 election, urging its supporters to abstain from voting as to not give credence to the process.
For the2016 elections, the party formed an alliance with theBPF Party, theBelarusian Christian Democracy, theSocial Democratic Party (Assembly), the 'Za svabodu' movement, theGreen Party, theBLPFP, the Trade Union of Electric Industry and independent candidates.[8] Party candidateHanna Kanapackaja won a seat in the 97th electoral district in theKastryčnickaja district of Minsk, making her and one other independent candidate the first opposition MPs represented in parliament since 2004. The party didn't win any seats in the2019 Belarusian parliamentary election, and with the loss of the other pro-opposition independent, left it and the opposition without any representation within the House of Representatives once again.
On 15 August 2023, the United Civic Party was banned by the Supreme Court of Belarus.[9]
UCP has an organisation for women and a youth organisation in its structure.
In 1995–2000, the youth organisation of the UCP was "Civil Forum", which left UCP duringparliamentary elections of 2000, when the UCP boycotted it against the wishes of Civil Forum. Uładzimier Navasiad, chairman of Civil Forum, ran and won a seat in Parliament.
In 2000, the youth organisation was "UCP Youth", created to replace Civil Forum, but was rather an artificial structure in the party.
From later that year until 2009,YCSU Young Democrats was officially a youth wing of UCP, but in February 2009 at the congress of YCSU Young Democrats, a decision to stop cooperating with the party was taken. Some members did not support the decision to restrain cooperation with United Civic Party and left, staying as UCP Youth.
| Election | Candidate | First round | Second round | Result | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | |||
| 1994 | EndorsedStanislav Shushkevich | 585,143 | 9.91% | Lost N | ||
| 1999 | Mikhail Chigir | No winner announced | ||||
| 2001 | EndorsedUładzimir Hančaryk | 965,261 | 15.65% | LostN | ||
| 2006 | EndorsedAlaksandar Milinkievič | 405,486 | 6.12% | LostN | ||
| 2010 | Jaroslav Romanchuk | 127,281 | 1.98% | LostN | ||
| 2015 | Anatoly Lebedko | Not admitted to the elections | ||||
| 2020 | Mikalaj Kazloŭ | Not admitted to the elections, EndorsedTsikhanouskaya | ||||
| Uladzimir Niapomniaščych | Not admitted to the elections | |||||
| Election | Party leader | Performance | Rank | Government | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | ± pp | Seats | +/– | ||||
| 1995 | Stanislaŭ Bahdankievič | No data | 3.1% | New | 6 / 260 | New | 4th | Opposition |
| 2000 | Anatoly Lebedko | Boycotted the elections | Extra-parliamentary | |||||
| 2004 | 160,011 | 2.62% |  0.48 | 0 / 110 |  0 | 7th | Extra-parliamentary | |
| 2008 | 125,276 | 2.33% | 0.29 | 0 / 110 | 0 |  4th | Extra-parliamentary | |
| 2012 | Boycotted the elections | Extra-parliamentary | ||||||
| 2016 | 111,227 | 2.16% | 0.17 | 1 / 110 | 1 | 5th | Opposition | |
| 2019 | Mikalaj Kazloŭ | 72,192 | 1.37% | 0.79 | 0 / 110 | 1 | 8th | Extra-parliamentary |
(in Belarusian and English)| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |