The State Duma in the first reading approved the return of the column "Against all"

The State Duma in the first reading approved the bill on the return of the column "against all" in the ballots in the elections, RIA Novosti reports. 380 deputies voted for this.

During the discussion of the bill, representatives of all factions, except for the LDPR, spoke for it. Its leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky does not see the logic in "making citizens come to polling stations and vote against all." “Against what? Against the country, against the Russian people, against democracy, against the Constitution?” Said Zhirinovsky. “This is monstrous, this is a retreat back in the Middle Ages. Even under the king, this could not be made, for example, on Yuryev, a peasant could go to another landowner.”

The representative of the Communists Vadim Soloviev emphasized that this column should be applied in the elections of all levels - from municipal to presidential. If the second reading restricting its application is made to the second reading, the Communist Party fraction will vote against, he said.

On January 13, the relevant State Duma Committee on Constitutional Law and State Building recommended the lower house of the parliament to adopt the bill in the first reading.

The bill was submitted to the State Duma by a group of senators led by the speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko in October. The official review of the government announced the support of the bill. However, specific proposals for its improvement have been expressed. The idea of ​​the return of the column "against all" was also supported by the legislative assemblies of six subjects of the Federation, who sent reviews to the bill to the State Duma. Not a single region has spoken up yet.

On September 25, at the opening of the autumn session of the upper house , Matvienko proposed to discuss the possibility of returning the column "against all" to the ballots . This, according to the speaker, requires modern political realities.

The deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Constitutional Legislation, Unenos, Dmitry Vyatkin, assured that they were ready to discuss the issue in the lower house. Nevertheless, he recalled, not so long ago, many Duma spoke out against the return of the column "against all."

The column "Against all" until 2006 was present in Russian ballots in the elections of all levels. However, in the summer of 2006, the State Duma adopted a law on the exclusion of this graph . The Federation Council approved this law, after which the document was signed by President Vladimir Putin and entered into force.