Ombudsman instead of a wizard

The new head of the CEC Ella Pamfilova promised immediate and cardinal changes

The new head of the CEC Ella Pamfilova promised immediate and cardinal changes

The new composition of the Central Election Commission was finally determined by the choice of the chairman. The members of the commission almost unanimously chose the former Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia Ella Pamfilova. In this post, she replaced the former head of the CEC Vladimir Churov, who led the commission for the past nine years.

Pamfilova’s candidacy in the updated CEC was proposed by President Vladimir Putin. Among other members of the commission proposed by the President are the deputy head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service Alexander Kinev, State Duma deputy Vasily Likhachev, former judge of the Constitutional Court Boris Ebzeev and a member of the Patriots of Russia party Yevgeny Shevchenko.

Ella Pamfilova herself at the first meeting of the new composition of the CEC promised that cardinal changes would occur in the work of the commission. She explained that she did not plan to destroy “everything and everything”, but is going to pre -comprehend the situation, but warned that the Central Election Commission did not have time to “build up”.

Pamfilova also promised to ensure transparency, purity and justice in the upcoming elections. For this, the new members of the CEC have less than six months. Also, the chosen head of the CEC in the near future intends to meet with its predecessors in order to listen to their advice.

In the Kremlin, Pamfilova’s activities were highly appreciated: the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said that Vladimir Putin “expressed confidence that in the new hypostasis Ella Aleksandrovna would remain such constructivism and such productivity in her work.”

At the same time, the press secretary of the head of state refused to recognize the work of Vladimir Churov after the words of Pamfilova about the need to return the confidence of Russians to the elections.

The appointment of Ella Pamfilova the head of the CEC was considered the most likely among experts, as soon as the names of the president of the new members of the election commission proposed by the president became known.

According to the political scientist and professor of the European University in St. Petersburg, Grigory Golosov , global changes, in addition to the change of "leadership stylistics", in the CEC with the advent of Pampilova should not be expected.

“Pamfilova is a person of a slightly different formation than Churov, but you need to understand that the chairman of the CEC is a figure that performs the functions of organizing elections and representative functions, and the elections themselves are made in the field, in the regions,” the votes said. - The change of leadership of the CEC will not have such a strong influence on them. The regional authorities do everything so that candidates from United Russia win the elections, because they faced such a task. How they fulfill it - honestly or not, does not matter, because to punish or encourage them for the result itself. They will do as they can, but we already know how they do it. ”

According to the political scientist,

Pamfilova will not be able to affect the results of the upcoming elections, but it depends on her how she will appreciate the violations committed during the elections in the regions.

“To make an assessment, you need to have a sufficient amount of information, and you need to do it quickly. This requires an effective observation system that cannot exist under the current legislation. Therefore, there will be practically no evidence of colossal elections. Therefore, Pampilova, as an official, will have to say that there were no large violations that influenced the result of the election, ”the votes suggests.

“She will do the same as Churov, but more gently and streamlined. However, the effect of her words will be much stronger than if Churov said the same. Pampilova’s authority is an order of magnitude higher, with this calculation they chose that in the eyes of the Russian and world public elections in Russia began to look more legitimate, ”the political scientist is sure.

According to Grigory Melkonets , co -chairman of movement in defense of voter rights, the new composition of the Central Election Commission must abandon the strength to develop clear mechanisms for the elections, as well as become more open and public in order to position the public.

“Now we need to look at the first public steps of the new CEC composition.

So far, this is a formal purpose of people, but some of them can be expected by breakthrough things.

They were left a very large economy, so they almost from scratch have to figure out where to twist and correct something, and it will take a lot of time. The main goal of the head of the CEC is now to win authority, ”Melkonian believes.

The human rights activist hopes that the first steps of the CEC will be associated with the reforms of the scientific and methodological department of the commission. According to him, CECs are necessary for public representatives of the public experts who regularly give the commission members of recommendations, councils and draft documents.

“The CEC must have a support in their face, since now the new members have no soil under their feet, they have come to the system that was built before them. I think that the CEC should pull up authoritative and respected people who will not always say pleasant things out loud, ”said Melkonian.

The organization also hopes that the updated CEC will begin to prepare instructions for lower election commissions.

“The Central Election Commission has always had such an opportunity, but the previous composition did not use it, or used it wrong to intentionally create tension during the elections. Regional commissions always listen to the instructions of the Central Election Commission, and, of course, it is important for them what they say from high stands from Moscow. At the same time, those who are closely connected with the executive branch are sitting in the regional commissions, therefore, the Governor’s team is often more important than observing all laws. The CEC will have to relieve tension and put himself correctly in relations with such a “heritage” and intelligibly explain that elections with numerous violations are not a common “party line,” the human rights activist believes. And continues: “I want to believe that now the CEC will do everything as publicly as possible, because

We have “sending signals” now more important than the laws themselves. Now public signals that the elections should be held honestly are expected to make it possible to understand that it is impossible to do this, threaten the appeal to law enforcement agencies.

The CEC must put the election technology on the shelves and publicly demand responsibility for violations, ”said Melkonian.