Not mice, but larger animals

Deputies of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly adopted in the final reading amendments to the laws on elections of governors and municipalities.

United Russia members say that there will be no voting on temporary registration (carousel people love it very much) (only for the military), the oppositionists shout that there will be (for everyone). The most restrained admit that the law can be interpreted either way.

Fast, brazen, confusing

City parliamentarians quickly adopted amendments to the laws on elections of governor and municipal deputies in the second and immediately in the third reading (Yabloko members left the meeting in protest). At previous plenaries, documents were unexpectedly thrown in by voice . At first, the parliamentary opposition was not given the opportunity to familiarize itself with the initiatives in advance, then they were given a minimum of time for amendments. In general, everything is for people.

All opposition amendments were consistently rejected in batches - for example, in the law on gubernatorial elections, the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Yabloko members proposed banning voting on certificates of temporary registration, reducing the municipal barrier from 10 to 6%, requiring the submission of documents confirming a valid reason for early voting (business trip, vacation , hospitalization), organize video surveillance, etc.

Representatives of the Civic Platform proposed banning the opening of polling stations at enterprises with a continuous work cycle. United Russia, communists and Zhirinovites were terribly embarrassed about their vote, every now and then failing the call-call. The coalition of United Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and the Liberal Democratic Party, as usual, did not vote against the barriers to falsification - it simply ignored the procedure, preventing its opponents from gaining the required number of votes. Thus, for example, only 15 people voted for the Yabloko package of amendments.

Georgy Poltavchenko submitted two mutually exclusive amendments at once. On the one hand, he proposed abolishing early voting at precinct commissions - the amendment was rejected. The second amendment, which preserves the possibility of early voting at the PEC, was supported. The bottom line is that you can vote early in IKMO no earlier than ten days and no later than four, and in precinct commissions no earlier than three days.

The communists tried to demonstrate some semblance of opposition - the leader of the parliamentary Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Dmitriev, recalled from the podium about closed polling stations in the 2011 elections.

“The territory is closed, the entrance is closed, and inside there is like a precinct,” he said about voting at the Kirov plant, where neither observers nor State Duma deputy Oksana Dmitrieva were allowed. "Careful!" - United Russia member Andrei Vasilyev shouted to him from his seat, who broke into the Legislative Assembly precisely with the help of this section (at that time he was listed as the deputy director of the Kirov plant). "I'm careful, colleague!" - the communist snapped. Later, he went down to the hall and approached Vasiliev, with whom they joyfully kissed in front of the public, accustomed to such somersaults.

Little by little, the opposition managed to fight off something - the law obliging the publication of party programs of candidates in the newspapers of the municipalities in which they intend to run was removed from the law (it is no secret that such newspapers are controlled by United Russia).

The mysterious obligation to submit all nomination documents in machine-readable form has also been removed. More precisely, the list of such machine-readable documents has been reduced.

They will complain

The oppositionists insist that the procedure for adopting laws has been completely violated, since between the second and third reading there should be not a two-hour interval, but at least a week, so that the people's representatives have time to prepare their amendments. Yabloko members will go to complain to the Charter Court.

The journalists also managed to send there the author of the law on municipal elections, the head of the commission on the structure of state power and local self-government, Sergei Solovyov, who admitted that the rule on voting by temporary registration can be interpreted in two ways. Representatives of the press suggested that United Russia should appeal to the Charter Court to obtain a unified interpretation of the document. Soloviev was terribly surprised by the proposal, but promised to think about it.

Yabloko members are again going to demand the interpretation of the temporary document from the City Election Commission. By the end of the week they will send an official appeal to officials called upon to count the votes.

“Socialist-Revolutionary” Marina Shishkina is confident that it is possible to vote using temporary registration, and therefore she even intends to invite her faction colleagues to appeal again to the Charter Court in order to challenge this norm, because in accordance with the city charter, “the source of power of the St. Petersburg are residents of St. Petersburg."

Shishkina reinforces her conviction that the loophole for carousels remains with a reference to Article 7 of the law on municipal elections, which states that “the basis for including a citizen of the Russian Federation in the list of voters at a specific polling station ... in cases provided for by federal law, this law St. Petersburg, is the fact of temporary stay on the territory of this polling station. The fact of location of the place of residence or temporary stay of a citizen in the territory of the polling station, electoral district is established by the registration authorities ( certificate of registration at the place of residence. - Ed. ) of citizens of the Russian Federation according to place of stay."

Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Vyacheslav Makarov, however, is ready to give his hand to be cut off, proving that there will be no voting on temporary registration. Answering a question from a Novaya correspondent, he said: “Our task was when we said “no” so that different residents who do not live in the territories that work under temporary registration would not vote, so that there would be no voting on their part in municipal elections. This must be strictly and clearly suppressed. Voting by people who are not related to the municipality - they should not vote in the gubernatorial elections - people who do not live, have no connection... in any case, transport by bus, like colleagues. they said here they won’t, and the elections will be fair and transparent.”

Deputy Chairman of the State Electoral Commission Alexander Teterdinko claims that people with temporary registration will not be able to vote. An exception, they say, is made only for the military.

"Loopholes that an animal larger than a mouse can get through"

Deputies from "Yabloko" and "A Just Russia" made a joint statement - "United Russia", they believe, is preparing to falsify the elections." Party members accused the party in power "of adopting instructions on total falsification of elections." Oppositionists draw attention to the fact that " The law brings back early voting, without requiring any confirmation of why a voter will not be able to come to the polling station on election day.”

The leaders of Yabloko and A Just Russia, Andrei Palevich and Oksana Dmitrieva, called on Poltavchenko to “veto the law written by political swindlers.” Communist Vladimir Dmitriev also spent a long time scolding the authorities for loopholes, “where not only a mouse, but even a larger animal can easily get through.” He scolded - but did not enter into a coalition with SR and Yabloko, since “the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is a self-sufficient party,” because the people do not choose a tandem, the people “choose either me or you.” It is not clear how tacit support for United Russia correlates with self-sufficiency.

However, they did not choose either the “Socialist Revolutionaries” or the Communists; they chose a larger animal.