The Central Election Commission formed the Stavropol electoral commission

Yesterday, the Central Election Commission appointed the composition of the electoral commission of the Stavropol Territory for the second time, and also recommended a member of United Russia as its chairman. United Russia members believe that the choice between A Just Russia and United Russia, which were in conflict over control of the Stavropol regional election commission, was made by the Kremlin.

Having urgently met, yesterday the members of the Central Election Commission re-appointed the composition of the electoral commission of the Stavropol Territory and recommended lawyer Boris Dyakonov, who headed the legal department of the headquarters of United Russia at the March elections to the Duma of the Stavropol Territory, for the post of chairman of the commission. The new composition included the same 14 people whom the CEC had already appointed to the commission on July 19. The need for a repeat vote was caused by the decision of the Leninsky District Court of Stavropol, which questioned the previous resolution of the Central Election Commission on the appointment of six commission members recommended by the regional parliament.

Three members of the Central Election Commission expressed disagreement with the commission’s decision: Nikolai Konkin, Elena Dubrovina (delegated by the Federation Council) and Evgeniy Kolyushin (Communist Party of the Russian Federation). They abstained during voting. As Elena Dubrovina explained to Kommersant, the decision of the Central Election Commission “is flawed from a legal point of view, since the regional parliament appointed its part of the commission in a timely manner and the resolution of the Central Election Commission in this part is redundant.”

Let us recall that the formation of the Stavropol regional electoral commission, which has been going on for several months, includes several legal proceedings, as a result of which two overlapping commissions emerged at once. In one of them, on the initiative of A Just Russia, the head of the Stavropol city election commission, Vladimir Shaturin, was appointed chairman. In another, on the initiative of the local branch of United Russia, the director of the branch of Stavropolregiongaz LLC in Mineralnye Vody, Stepan Lipirov, was considered as chairman. The confrontation in the region between the two parties in power arose as a result of the March elections to the regional parliament, in which A Just Russia won (37% against 23% of United Russia), and on the eve of the December elections to the State Duma, both parties wanted to gain control of the regional electoral commission . Due to the conflict in the Stavropol region, the Central Election Commission missed the deadline for the formation of regional commissions for the State Duma elections, and the head of the Central Election Commission, Vladimir Churov, received an expression of displeasure personally from Vladimir Putin. Representatives of the parties stated that the formation of the electoral commission in the Stavropol Territory can be completed only if the Kremlin intervenes in the conflict.

“We adopted a resolution without going into details of intra-regional relations, and were guided by the provisions of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, according to which citizens have the right to participate in elections,” said the head of the Central Election Commission, Vladimir Churov, yesterday. In United Russia, the choice of United Russia member Dyakonov was regarded as a manifestation of the will of the federal government. “Dyakonov is neither the person of the governor of the region, nor the person of the mayor of Stavropol, who are drawn into a political conflict. In this sense, his candidacy is a compromise. We can say that this is direct presidential rule in the Stavropol regional commission,” a member of the Central Executive Committee with an advisory vote from "United Russia" Sergei Kostenko.

A member of the Central Election Commission with an advisory vote from A Just Russia, Sergei Danilenko, like the three members of the Central Election Commission who abstained, believes that an illegal decision was made yesterday. He did not rule out that the regional Duma may challenge it again in court. “The law provides for the case when it is not possible to form a new absolutely legitimate commission. A real compromise would be to leave the previous composition of the commission, headed by Chairman Viktor Limanov, to whom there are no legal claims,” he said.

Boris Dyakonov told Kommersant yesterday that an organizational meeting of the commission will take place on Monday, at which he expects his candidacy to be approved. “Yes, there will be consultations, but I am not going to give any guarantees to the parties. Guarantees are provided by Rosstrakh,” he said. At the same time, Mr. Dyakonov confirmed that he intends to resign from his position in the political council of the Stavropol regional branch of United Russia, but does not intend to leave the party.

Irina Kommersant-Nagornykh

Regional presidential rule