Translated material
Longing for honor
Alexander Veshnyakov was left in the elections
At a meeting on Wednesday, the Central Election Commission proposed appointing the former head of the commission, Alexander Veshnyakov, as honorary chairman of the Russian Foundation for Free Elections. The main place of work of the former head of the Central Election Commission is still unknown. But his willingness to participate in the work of an organization involved in the elections suggests that Mr. Veshnyakov most likely will not be sent to work far from the electoral process (for example, as an ambassador to an exotic country). However, he can also criticize some norms of election legislation, as he did as head of the Central Election Commission . At least now this criticism will not have the previous connotation of a person in power disagreeing with government initiatives.According to the executive director of the fund, member of the Public Chamber Andrei Przhezdomsky, for the sake of Mr. Veshnyakov’s new appointment, appropriate changes will be made to the fund’s charter.
“Alexander Albertovich’s experience, his knowledge, his ideas about the electoral process must be in demand and used,” explained the new chairman of the Central Election Commission, Vladimir Churov, at a meeting yesterday. According to him, a meeting of the fund’s council will be held on Tuesday next week, at which the Central Election Commission will propose changing the regulations and introducing the post of honorary chairman, which will be held by Alexander Veshnyakov. Mr. Veshnyakov himself, according to Vladimir Churov, has already given his consent. At the same time, the head of the Central Election Commission very vaguely described the future work of Alexander Veshnyakov: “The range of his functions will be the widest.” Thus, the authorities may be trying to create the illusion of Mr. Veshnyakov’s presence in the election process and, to a certain extent, console him after his resignation. True, the president of the Expertise Foundation, Mark Urnov, in a commentary to Vremya Novostei suggested that this version is “very far-fetched.”
“It’s just not customary in our system to remove high-level officials “to nowhere.” They decided to give Veshnyakov such a position without real powers, imitating his involvement in the elections, the analyst believes. - At the same time, he will not have any real influence. And it’s difficult to characterize the work of this foundation - I don’t remember them as a subject of powerful influence on the electoral process.” Let us recall that after Mr. Veshnyakov left the Central Election Commission, he was assigned many jobs - from the post of ambassador to the post of senator.
The Russian Foundation for Free Elections is a non-profit organization that monitors elections in the country. The fund was established in 2001 by the Central Election Commission, the Institute of Socio-Political Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Moscow State Law Academy, its executive director Andrei Przhezdomsky recalled yesterday. The foundation's work is focused on federal election campaigns, it holds forums with the participation of parties and other participants in the electoral process and is designed to protect the voting rights of citizens. The work of the foundation is financed through donations from legal entities and publishing activities.
Vladimir Churov cited the organization of a hotline during the regional parliamentary elections on April 15 in Krasnoyarsk as a positive example of the foundation’s work. It was also this foundation that organized a “party fair” in the Moscow Manege before the previous federal elections.
The Central Election Commission counted the parties' money
The Russian Central Election Commission has completed accepting consolidated financial reports for 2006 from political parties. Of the 35 political parties registered at the beginning of 2007, 24 submitted these reports.
In total, 2.3 billion rubles were received into the accounts of political parties in 2006, and they spent about 2.1 billion rubles during the reporting year.
The most funds were attracted by United Russia - about 1.5 billion rubles, A Just Russia - about 166 million rubles, Patriots of Russia - about 158 million rubles, the Liberal Democratic and Communist parties - 150 million rubles each, the Yabloko party - more than 43 million rubles, the Union of Right Forces party - about 40 million rubles.
The main item of expenditure was the cost of maintaining regional branches of political parties - about 1 billion rubles. The parties spent 156 million rubles to finance their main statutory activity - participation in elections and referendums in 2006.
The consolidated financial statements, in particular, in accordance with paragraph 6 of Article 34 of the Federal Law “On Political Parties” also contain information about legal entities and individuals who made donations to political parties, the total amount of which in the reporting year for a legal entity exceeds 400 thousand rubles, for an individual - 20 thousand rubles. "News Time"