The referendum law may soon change

On May 18, 2004, the head of the Central Election Commission, A. Veshnyakov, told journalists that in the coming days, the new version of the law on the referendum developed by the CEC would be submitted to the State Duma for consideration, and that he did not exclude that "the law would be adopted during the current session . "

In addition to technical issues (voting procedure, tabulation, etc.), the draft law provides for changes in the procedure for putting forward a referendum initiative in such a way that, according to many journalists and party leaders, "to complicate the procedure for starting a referendum for citizens who are not united by any party " .

According to the new bill, in order to organize a referendum, it is first necessary to create a regional initiative group of at least a hundred local residents. Then submit an application for registration, and if it is satisfied, create and register similar groups in at least 45 regions of the country.

Then all these cells must unite into a large initiative group and submit an application to the Central Election Commission. Moreover, the draft of the new law allocates no more than two months for all this work. And only after that you can start collecting signatures, and no more than 50 thousand in one subject of the federation (earlier - no more than 200 thousand). 45 days are allotted for this (previously they were given three months). At the same time, the initiators of the referendum can no longer involve professional signature collectors, since the identity of the signature collectors must be notarized.

The CEC is given a month to verify signatures on the new bill, not 15 days, as it is supposed to under the current law.

From the moment the collection of signatures begins, any expenses should be made only through an official bank account, which, like a real party, cannot have more than 250 million rubles. From the same amount it is necessary to pay for "campaigning" for holding a referendum.

Campaigning, according to the proposed bill, can only be carried out by "initiative campaigning groups" (not to be confused with simply initiative ones). Each of them will also have their own bank account and limit (the same 250 million). But for their registration, five hundred like-minded people will already need to gather. And if an active party wants to register such a structure, then it will first have to convene a congress on this subject. What is the procedure for registering campaign groups from parties and from citizens, the law does not clearly explain.

Thus, according to A. Veshnyakov, the CEC will be able to get "a clear answer to the question - who exactly is the initiator of the referendum" . In the opinion of journalists, the new procedure will make it possible " to "destroy in the bud any referendum that is inconvenient for the authorities .

Sources

• Stepanov Andrei "Yes" and "no" will not say. // Moscow news. 2004. May 21-27.
• Kornya Anastasia The referendum is a dangerous democratic pleasure. // Independent newspaper. 2004. May 19.
• Kornya Anastasia, Rodin Ivan Referendums are buried. // Independent newspaper. 2004. May 21.