for democratic elections. Although it was considered to be "puppet" parliament of Lukashenko, eventually there appeared dissenting voices, notably the parliamentary group "Respublika" (Valery Frałoŭ, Uładzimier Parfianovič, Siarhiej Skrabiec, Uładzimier Navasiad). 2001 Presidential Elections The 2001 Belarusian presidential elections were held on 9 September 2001 with three candidates competing. The incumbent president, Alexander Lukashenko, was one of the candidates running for office. The two candidates that sought to unseat Lukashenko were Vladimir Goncharik and Sergei Gaidukevich. According to the official data, Alexander Lukashenko has won in the first balloting with 75,65% of votes (less than in 1994 when he wasn't in power) against 15,65% for Goncharik. Turnout — 83,86%. 2004 Parliamentary Elections In Belarus, while there are political parties that either support or oppose President Lukashenko, the majority of the seats in the National Assembly are filled by those not affiliated with any political parties ("non-partisans"). However, there are three political parties who hold seats in the House of Representatives: the Communist Party of Belarus (8 seats), the Agrarian Party of Belarus (3 seats), and the Liberal Democratic Party of Belarus (1 seat). The other two parties that pledged their support to Lukashenko, the Belarusian Socialist Sporting Party and the Republican Party of Labour and Justice, did not secure any seats in the October 2004 election. Opposition parties, such as the Belarusian People's Front and the United Civil Party of Belarus did not gain any seats. The UCPB and the BPF are some of the parties that comprise the People's Coalition 5 Plus, a group of political parties who oppose Lukashenko. Several organizations, including as the OSCE, declared the election un-free due to opposition parties negative results and the bias of the Belarusian media in favor of the government. However, in constitutional as well as political terms, the House is of marginal importance. At the 2000 election, it took four rounds of voting before all the seats were filled; in the end, 86% of the elected deputies were independents, and the remainder were the representatives of parties traditionally loyal to the president (OSCE, 2000). The 13–17 October 2004 elections, according to the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission, 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