Translated material
Voting with a squeak
The Duma finally adopted presidential amendments to election laws
The State Duma yesterday adopted in the third and final reading amendments to the electoral legislation initiated by the head of state. Changes to 13 existing laws and codes completed the electoral reform. As Vladimir Pligin, the chairman of the specialized committee on state construction and constitutional legislation, later told reporters, the rules for conducting election campaigns in 2007-2008 will no longer change.” “If we do not find errors in the law that was adopted, and we worked carefully, then no further changes are planned,” said Mr. Pligin.The new rules provide, in particular, for elections only based on party lists, the abolition of electoral blocs, an increase in the barrier to entry into the Duma from 5 to 7%, and an increase in election funds with greater transparency. Legislatively increases state funding for parties 100 times - from 5 kopecks. up to 5 rub. for the voter's vote. At the same time, not only the winning parties will receive money, but also everyone who scored over 3%.
One of the main innovations of the legislation proposed by the president was the provision on the termination of parliamentary powers in the event of a parliamentarian’s voluntary withdrawal from the faction. At the same time, it was necessary to specify in the text of the document what a faction is: “an association of deputies based on the electoral list of the party that won the elections.”
Amendments to the presidential bill also provide for control by the Central Election Commission over the spending of financial resources by political parties. If previously parties submitted reports on the expenditure of funds to the tax authorities once a year, now they will report to the CEC quarterly.
The permissible number of invalid signatures collected in support of a party's participation in elections is reduced from 25 to 10%. The law establishes two single election days in Russia - the second Sunday in March and the second Sunday in October.
In addition, the legislation strengthens the responsibility of the media for the dissemination of false information during the election campaign. Moreover, sanctions can be applied even if the original source is other information resources.
United Russia deputies also introduced amendments to the bill allowing local authorities, at their discretion, to abolish the “against all” column when voting in regional and local elections. Voting in protest in federal elections is not yet prohibited.
Despite the fact that the main discussions usually take place in the Duma during the consideration of the law in the second and third readings, the final adoption of the presidential initiative did not pass quietly. Before the vote, Oleg Smolin, a member of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation faction, called on deputies not to support this law, arguing that its authors “are preparing Russia for an “orange”, “blue”, “red”, God forbid, not a “brown” revolution.” According to Comrade Smolin, reducing the chances of victory for opposition parties will lead to the fact that the opposition will definitely call the voting results into question. “Thus, a Ukrainian or Georgian version is expected,” the deputy believes. The representative of the LDPR faction, Alexey Mitrofanov, argued with this. He believes that “the country is moving towards a two-party system,” and the current law is aimed precisely at the formation of a stable party structure in Russia. “We are all moving in the right direction—a systemic solution has been proposed, and in the end there will be two parties—United Russia and the LDPR,” Mr. Mitrofanov told his colleagues.
As a result, 331 deputies voted for the adoption of the law in the third reading, with the required 226 votes, and 97 were against it.