Translated material
Will eat the party
A new purge of the political field may be carried out in Russia
The post-election purge of party and electoral legislation appears to have begun. The start of this process was given yesterday during a round table dedicated to improving the law on parties. The event was held as part of the work of the committee “For Clean and Fair Elections!”, headed by State Duma deputy Nikolai Gonchar, once independent, and now a member of United Russia. At this event, the idea was first publicly voiced to increase the minimum number required to register a political party from the current 50 to 100 thousand members. By implementing this project, the authorities will have the opportunity to legally remove more than half of the existing parties from the Russian political scene, which is already not very abundant.Initially, it was assumed that representatives of all 13 parties on the committee would present their proposals for reforming the laws, after which these proposals would be summarized and submitted to the Central Election Commission and the State Duma. This format of work was invented after the Chairman of the Central Election Commission, Vladimir Churov, disowned any participation in the development of amendments , citing the “lack of legislative initiative” in his department. “First, he asked that all political parties submit their versions of amendments to the Central Election Commission, and he, in turn, will forward proposals for changing the law to the State Duma,” Vadim Solovyov, a lawyer of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and State Duma deputy, reminds the Vremya Novostei correspondent of the history of the issue. - But the proposals of different parties largely coincided. So that there are no “locomotives”, to lower the seven percent barrier, to cancel the collection of signatures for parties registered with the Ministry of Justice, or to increase the permitted percentage of defects in signature lists from the current 5 to 15% - this is our plan, other parties have proposed even more.”
Such freethinking could not in any way cause delight in Mr. Churov, who positions himself as a conservative and does not hide the fact that he would prefer to maintain the status quo in everything. Therefore, party members eager to loosen the legislative nuts were redirected to Mr. Gonchar.
There was no fireworks of ideas at yesterday's round table. Even the communist proposals mentioned by Comrade Solovyov turned out to be not officially formalized. The same incident occurred with the initiatives of A Just Russia. And the representative of the LDPR, when asked to share his developments, only vaguely waved his hand: “They are being discussed!” “The movement of your hand, coupled with your facial expressions, means that the leader did not give instructions?” - Nikolai Gonchar asked insightfully. “Well, in general, yes,” the young man frankly admitted. “United Russia” wisely sent a representative of its Moscow branch to the event, who said with a sigh: “In terms of subordination, we pass all proposals only to the top, to the party’s Central Committee.” Therefore, he cannot announce them. A couple of initiatives were found by the “Civil Force” and the Social Justice Party.
The main trial balloon from a political point of view was thrown by Yaroslav Volpin, the chief specialist of the Democratic Party's policy department. Having taken the floor, the first thing he did was announce a proposal to double the number of party members required for registration - from the current 50 to 100 thousand. By the way, the Democratic Party itself does not have such a number of adherents. The party members looked at each other meaningfully, but remained silent. Only the eccentric leader of the Peace and Unity Party, Sazhi Umalatova, gave free rein to her emotions when it was her turn. “This is an attempt to destroy the parties! Why then was it necessary to destroy a great power in order to return to what they left? - she was indignant. - Party membership in the regions is already checked by police officers. With a dog!
However, Ms. Umalatova was indignant in vain: if you believe the information of Vadim Solovyov, the author of the amendments on the 100,000th membership is not the pocket pro-Kremlin Democratic Party, but the presidential administration. “They can be considered in the near future; all that is required is to prepare the ground or choose a good time,” explains the Communist Party lawyer. “I don’t exclude the possibility that they will be ‘thrown in’ during the last session before the holidays and will be carried out in three readings in one day.” Mr. Gonchar himself, in a conversation with a Vremya Novostei correspondent, denied this information: “I have no information about the availability of ready-made amendments, I think it’s just a hoax!”
However, his behavior yesterday leaves room for the wildest guesses. Throughout the hour and a half discussion, Nikolai Gonchar continually hurried his colleagues, demanding that they quickly provide amendments to the legislation approved by the political councils of the parties and formalized. “We are now entering summer! - he explained to the party members. “If you don’t do this before the end of May, then the political process will wake up in September!” Mr. Gonchar did not specify what this “process” threatens, but it became clear that he wants to submit proposals for reforming election-related laws to the State Duma as soon as possible.
Yaroslav Volpin proposed to “balance” the draconian norm on compulsory party membership of 100 thousand people by abolishing the electoral deposit and the collection of signatures for parties registered with the Ministry of Justice. Vain generosity: under such conditions, only four parliamentary parties have a chance to undergo re-registration - United Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Liberal Democratic Party and A Just Russia. And they don’t need deposits and signatures for elections anyway. Of the remaining ten registered parties, only Agrarian can boast of the required number. The Democratic Party can also overcome the 100 thousand member threshold, but for a different reason: the Kremlin needs it to create the illusion of a liberal opposition. In this capacity, it was already tested in the presidential elections on March 2, when, of all the self-nominated candidates, the Central Election Commission registered only the leader of the Democratic Party of Russia, Andrei Bogdanov, as a candidate. And other nanoparties will be completely erased from big politics. This is fully consistent with the declared course towards the formation of a two-, or even one-and-a-half, party system in the country.