The State Duma Committee approved the postponement of the next presidential elections to the day of the annexation of Crimea

The Duma Committee on State Building and Legislation approved a bill proposing the postponement of the presidential elections in 2018 from March 11 to March 18, when Russia celebrates the annexation of Crimea, reports . RIA Novosti

“Currently, presidential elections are held on the second Sunday of March. According to the amendments, if the second Sunday is a combined, post-holiday or working day due to the postponement of holidays, then voting day is postponed to the next - that is, the third - Sunday of the month. In 2018, it will be March 18,” the agency explains.

The bill changes paragraph 7 of Article 5 of the Federal Law “On the Election of the President of the Russian Federation”, in the new wording it will be as follows: “if the Sunday on which the election of the President of the Russian Federation should be scheduled coincides with the day preceding a non-working holiday, or this Sunday falls on a week that includes a non-working holiday, or this Sunday is declared a working day in accordance with the established procedure, elections are scheduled for the following Sunday.”

In addition, it is assumed that absentee ballots will not be needed in the presidential election. The date for consideration of the bill in the first reading has not yet been set.

The authors of the legislative initiative were senators Andrei Klishasom and Anatoly Shirokov; the idea of ​​postponing the elections to the day of the holiday in honor of the annexation of Crimea was also supported by State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin.