Alexei Navalny's unregistered Progress Party has appealed a number of provisions of the Law on Political Parties to the Constitutional Court

Alexei Navalny's unregistered Progress Party has appealed a number of provisions of the Law on Political Parties to the Constitutional Court. In addition, Navalny has sent letters to President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, and Central Election Commission Chair Ella Pamfilova, demanding that the Progress Party be allowed to participate in the elections (see inset).

The complaint states that the provisions of Article 15 of the Law on Parties allow the Ministry of Justice to essentially liquidate a party without a court decision. After all, according to paragraphs 4, 6 and 7 of this article, the registration authority may extrajudicially exclude a party that has registered branches in more than half of the subjects from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and restrict its right to participate in elections, including in the presence of an unfinished court case on recognizing the refusal to register a regional branch as illegal.

The most popular

The Progress Party is, according to polls, the most popular political force among those people whose actions in 2011–2012 changed the legislation on parties, writes Navalny.

The Progress Party was excluded from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities in May 2015 because, according to the Ministry of Justice, it failed to register the required number of regional branches within a six-month period. The authors of the complaint believe that the Ministry of Justice is interpreting the law restrictively, which states that this period is extended in the event of a suspension of registration or an appeal of a refusal in court. “The Ministry of Justice interprets this provision in such a way that if there is a suspension for a region, then the six-month period is extended only for that region, and not for all regional branches. But a literal interpretation does not say that the period is extended for one branch, which was confirmed by the regional offices of the Ministry of Justice, which continued to register us until the end of 2014,” explains the party’s lawyer Ivan Zhdanov. The complaint also states that a party can only be liquidated by a decision of its governing body or the Supreme Court, but Article 15 allows it to be excluded from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (which is similar to liquidation) by a decision of an executive body, which negates the right to judicial protection.

The issue of registering parties in Russia is not decided at the legal level, says lawyer Vadim Prokhorov: "I don't see much point in turning to the Constitutional Court, since it has become politicized in favor of supporting any steps by the current government. It can amend some penalties, but in a case like this, even if there are legal grounds, it will not make a decision that runs counter to the presidential administration's directive." According to Prokhorov, Navalny's lawyers are right about the restrictive interpretation of the law by the Ministry of Justice: "Registration of a party, in essence, should be of a notification nature, as follows from the Constitution. At one time, we were denied registration of the "People for Democracy and Justice" party on the grounds that one of the many party members mistakenly listed 1054 as the year of birth."

Navalny will receive a formal response, which he will use in the event of a campaign to delegitimize the election results, political scientist Mikhail Vinogradov admits: "In the last couple of months, he has shown that he is intent on delegitimization, which the authorities are not interested in. Navalny presents himself as a victim, having announced the Progress Party at the time the elections were called, especially since the arguments for refusing registration did not sound very clear."

Liquidation instead of registration