Kursk - good, Sakhalin

Alexander Rutskoi will try to judge the elections for himself

The gubernatorial elections last weekend brought both victory and defeat to the Unity party. On Sakhalin, the “bears” candidate Igor Farkhutdinov won the elections in the first round, retaining the governor’s chair for another term. But Kursk candidate Alexander Rutsky suffered a setback: by a court decision, he was not allowed to participate in the elections at the very last moment - 13 hours before the vote. Mr. Rutskoy decided to prove the injustice of the regional judges with the help of the Prosecutor General's Office, where he sent his application yesterday, and the Supreme Court, where he intends to personally bring his complaint today.

Yesterday, the leader of the Duma Unity faction, Boris Gryzlov, managed to comment on the Sakhalin victory, calling the island’s governor a professional manager. Mr. Gryzlov especially emphasized that he “is implementing the president’s line aimed at strengthening the power vertical in the country.”

The regional branch of Unity reacted most sharply to the Kursk story, completely sharing the opinion of its candidate about the injustice of the court decision. The Moscow leadership of the “bears” nevertheless sided with the law, although they admit that Alexander Rutskoi “stood at the origins of our movement.” Unity leader Sergei Shoigu said yesterday that the party “of course supports” Mr. Rutsky, but in the legal dispute “must follow the letter of the law.” Mr. Shoigu had no complaints about the law.

But they were expressed by the chairman of the Central Election Commission, Alexander Veshnyakov. True, his complaints are not against the electoral legislation, but against the legislators who last year introduced an amendment to the Code of Civil Procedure (CCP). It was because of this amendment that candidate Rutskoy, having lost his candidate status, did not have the opportunity to protest the decision of the regional court in the hours remaining before the vote. According to the amendment, Mr. Rutskoy has the right only to challenge the decision of the regional court in the Supreme Court, but not to appeal it in cassation. If the Duma of the previous convocation and the Federation Council had not excluded the cassation instance, then candidate Rutskoi last Saturday would have had the right to appeal the decision of the regional court immediately after the judges announced the operative part of the decision. But the candidate now has no right to appeal, and he can exercise his right to challenge the court’s decision no earlier than the regional court formulates the motivating part of its decision. The law gives judges up to three days to formulate it.

Alexander Veshnyakov is confident that the cassation instance should be restored to the Code of Civil Procedure so that the trial procedure does not in any way infringe on the electoral rights of citizens. At the same time, Mr. Veshnyakov does not consider it possible for himself to evaluate the decision of the Kursk Regional Court, since Alexander Rutsky cannot be called an “impeccable candidate.” At the same time, the head of the Central Election Commission is convinced that Mr. Rutskoy has a “theoretical chance” of getting the regional court’s decision overturned and demanding re-elections.

Victor KHAMRAEV