§ Article 116(untitled)

onsideration of citizens’ initiative to hold a republican referendum
 Signature sheets are submitted by coordinators for districts, cities, districts in cities no later
than the expiration of the period established for collecting signatures, to the district, city
executive committee, to the local administration, which within ten days check the authenticity
of citizens' signatures on the signature sheets. At the same time, at least 20 percent of citizens’
signatures on signature sheets submitted by district, city, and city district coordinators must be
verified.
 The determination of the procedure for verifying and recording the signatures of citizens in
the signature sheets submitted to the bodies specified in part one of this article, as well as the
recognition of citizens’ signatures as unreliable, are carried out in the manner prescribed by
parts nineteen and twenty-one of Article 61 of this Code . Signatures of citizens collected before
the registration of the initiative group are also considered unreliable. Signatures of citizens are
not subject to verification and recording if the signature sheet does not contain the wording of
the question proposed for the referendum and (or) a statement of the substance of the
proposed decision. If the signature sheet received by the district, city executive committee, local
administration contains signatures of citizens living in the territory of different districts, cities of
regional subordination, districts in the city, only signatures collected in the territory of that
district, city, district are subject to verification and recording in the city, to the executive
committee of which this subscription sheet was submitted to the local administration. Other
signatures are not verified and are not taken into account.
 If several signatures of the same citizen are detected, only one signature is considered
reliable, and the remaining signatures are considered unreliable.
 If the number of invalid signatures of citizens detected during verification is more than 15
percent of the number of verified signatures, an additional verification of another 15 percent of
the signatures of the number of signatures in the signature sheets submitted to the relevant
district, city executive committee, or local administration is carried out.
 If the total number of unreliable signatures of citizens identified during checks is more than
15 percent of the total number of verified signatures on signature sheets, all signatures of
citizens on submitted signature sheets are not taken into account when determining the result
of collecting signatures in a district, city, or district within a city.
 The results of the collection of signatures of citizens in signature sheets in support of the
initiative to hold a republican referendum are made by a decision of the relevant district, city
executive committee, local administration, which is sent accordingly to the regional, Minsk city
executive committee. The decision shall indicate the total number of signatures on the signature
sheets received from the initiative group; the number of signatures whose authenticity was
verified; the number of signatures recognized as reliable and the number of signatures
recognized as unreliable.
 The regional, Minsk city executive committee, if necessary, can also check the authenticity
of citizens’ signatures on the signature sheets within five days. Based on the decisions of district,
city executive committees, local administrations to establish the number of citizens who put
their signatures on the signature sheets in support of the initiative to hold a referendum, and
the results of checks carried out by the regional, Minsk city executive committee on the
authenticity of signatures of citizens in the signature sheets of the regional, Minsk city executive
The committee sums up the results of collecting signatures for the region and the city of Minsk,
makes a decision on this and sends it to the Central Commission. The decision shall indicate the
data provided for in part six of this article. A copy of the decision is transferred to the
coordinator of the initiative group for the region, the city of Minsk.
 After decisions are made by the regional and Minsk city executive committees, the initiative
group draws up a final act on the collection of signatures and submits it to the Central
Commission.
 Central Commission:
 checks the compliance of the final act of the initiative group and the received decisions of
the regional and Minsk city executive committees with the requirements of this Code and other
acts of legislation;
 draws up a conclusion on the initiative group’s compliance with the requirements of this
Code and a protocol on the results of collecting signatures, confirming the presence of at least
450 thousand signatures of citizens, including at least 30 thousand signatures of citizens from
each region and the city of Minsk.
 The final act of the initiative group, together with its conclusion and protocol, if there are
no grounds for rejecting the proposal to hold a referendum, is transferred by the Central
Commission to the President of the Republic of Belarus.
 The Central Commission rejects the proposal to hold a referendum and informs the initiative
group and the President of the Republic of Belarus about this in the following cases:
 violation of the deadline for collecting citizens' signatures;
 lack of the required number of signatures;
 identifying violations of the principle of voluntariness during the collection of signatures
recorded in the manner established by the Central Commission;
 submission by the initiative group of more than 15 percent of false signatures from the total
number of verified signatures of citizens in the signature sheets;
 lack of a special account;
 exceeding by more than 20 percent the maximum amount of expenditure of funds from the
initiative group fund specified in part three of Article 114 1 of this Code, or using the same
amount of funds in addition to the funds of this fund;
 establishing in the submitted documents other violations of the requirements of this Code
and other acts of legislation.
 The decision of the Central Commission to reject the proposal to hold a referendum can be
appealed within a month to the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus by the head of the
initiative group.
 The repeated initiation by citizens of holding a referendum on the same issue is allowed no
earlier than one year after the rejection of the proposal to hold a referendum and no earlier
than three years after the holding of a referendum on this issue.