Translated material
Dear people
Sergei Mironov and Boris Gryzlov want to elect senators differently
United Russia unexpectedly proposed electing senators by popular vote. Thus, the party in power intends to establish control over the upper house of parliament. The idea of electing senators has long been promoted by the head of the Federation Council, and now also the leader of the new pro-Kremlin party A Just Russia, Sergei Mironov - five years ago he first proposed electing his colleagues. However, according to his scheme, senators must be non-partisan and represent the interests of regional authorities.At the United Russia congress held last Saturday in Yekaterinburg, the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Sergei Shoigu, proposed making the post of member of the Federation Council elective. Moreover, he advised that at the next plenary meeting, this law, introduced by the Chairman of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov, be adopted in three readings and “already in the March elections, elect senators by the whole people.”
However, electing senators “by the whole people” will not work. More precisely, it will only work after filtering the candidates in the regional executive and legislative bodies. Now the Federation Council is formed from two representatives from each region - one from the now actually appointed governor by the president and the still popularly elected regional parliament. Mr. Mironov, the author of the law on the election of members of the Senate, believes that the governor is obliged to present at least two candidates for elections, the legislative assembly - at least three or four. After this, on the same day as the elections to the local parliament, citizens will choose two of all proposed candidates by a simple majority.
It is curious that the bill does not yet stipulate what criteria local authorities should use when selecting candidates. As Vremya Novostey was told in the Federation Council, it is proposed to nominate respected people, those who, in the opinion of the authorities, can represent the region with maximum efficiency.
Since the work of the upper house of parliament must be continuous (senators, for example, decide on declaring war or sending Russian military personnel outside the country), the entire Senate cannot be elected on the same day. That is why, according to Sergei Mironov’s project, in each region elections of senators should coincide with elections to the legislative assembly. It is not entirely clear how the yet unelected regional parliament will have time to nominate senators. Or they will have to work with the heir to the previous legislature.
If this particular scheme is implemented, United Russia will achieve their goal: since the overwhelming number of governors are members of their party, and United Russia rules almost all regional parliaments, they will select “respected people” for the Senate according to their criteria.
Sergei Mironov told reporters that he would be glad if United Russia was ready to support the bill on the election of members of the Federation Council, but did not approve of the agility of United Russia members: “I am glad that United Russia showed such unanimity on this issue at the congress. But then they themselves admitted that this bill had not yet been submitted to the State Duma. Not everything here is so simple, and the length of work on it is based on the fact that, having adopted this law, not to change the Constitution.”
Secretary of the Federal Political Council of the Union of Right Forces Boris Nadezhdin reminded Vremya Novostey that, while still a deputy of the State Duma of the previous convocation, he introduced a bill regarding the election of the Senate. “It is impossible to make direct elections in their pure form within the framework of the existing Constitution,” says the author of the “old” bill. - Because the Constitution says that members of the Senate do not represent the people, but the authorities of the subject. Elections in which candidates are nominated by the governor and the speaker of parliament, in my opinion, are a swindle.” According to Mr. Nadezhdin, the issue can be resolved with the help of the Constitutional Court or, “what is more honest, launch a mechanism for amendments to the Constitution.”
In any case, it will not be possible to pass the law before the end of this year, as Sergei Shoigu rashly proposed. The Federation Council believes that it will be possible to pass the law only next year - it is necessary to get feedback from the regions, since the bill directly concerns the regions. This process, as a rule, lasts a month, then it is necessary to comprehend the proposals from the localities and introduce some of them into law. The head of the Central Election Commission, Alexander Veshnyakov, also considers it unrealistic that the proposed bill will begin to work already in the March elections.
As the leader of A Just Russia, Sergei Mironov faces two troubles with the adoption of the law he has lobbied for so long. The victory of the “actual left” in the regional elections is still far away, so many literal and latent United Russia members may appear in the Senate. And Mr. Mironov himself may not be among the potential senators proposed by the legislative assembly of his native St. Petersburg - after all, United Russia also has a majority in this regional parliament.