Party of Communists of Belarus

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PKB symbol

The Party of Communists of Belarus (in Russian: Партия коммунистов Белоруссии, in Belarusian: Партыя камуністаў Беларусі, Partyja Kamunistau Bielarusi, PKB) is a political party in Belarus, which opposes the government of president Alexander Lukashenko. The PKB was founded in 1991, and emerged as one of the major political parties in independent Belarus. The party should be distinguished from the Communist Party of Belarus, which broke away from PKB in 1996.

At the last legislative elections, 13-17 October 2004, the party was part of the People's Coalition 5 Plus (Narodnaja Kaalicyja Piaciorka Plus), which didn't secure any seats. These elections fell significantly short of OSCE commitments according to the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission [1]. 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.

PCB is led by Sergey Kalyakin and is considered to be "pro-Western".^{[citation needed]} On February 2007, Kalyakin visited USA and met both chambers of the US Congress, Department of State officials, and representatives of non-governmental organizations in order to discuss the possible US influence on processes that are taking place in Belarus.[2].