Maryin's innocence

In parallel with the presidential election in Moscow, a local referendum may take place

On the day of the presidential election on March 18, a referendum on the unification of the municipal districts of Maryino and Lublino may take place in Moscow. The corresponding decision was made at an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Deputies of the Maryino County on January 10, the mediazone publication reports. The referendum can be made the question: “Do you think it is necessary that local governments make an initiative to unite the municipal districts of Maryino and Lublin in the municipal district of Maryinsky?”

The decision of the municipal deputies, signed by the head of the Council, Viktor Sotskov, also states that the issue of the possibility of a referendum was considered after the initiative group of the public organization for a comfortable environment, sent to the municipal authorities on December 27 last year.

The chief of the election headquarters of Alexei Navalny Leonid Volkov on Twitter called the decision on the referendum “inflation”. In his opinion, the initiative group could not collect 5% of the signatures of voters Maryino and Lublino for the New Year holidays for the referendum.

“Everyone who dealt with the collection of signatures knows - it is unrealistic to collect 5%. Especially in two weeks. Especially on the holidays. Moreover, no one knows about it. Do you live in Lublino or Maryino? Have you seen crowds of collectors combing all apartments? " - Volkov was indignant.

However, in order for the referendum on the unification of Maryino and Lublino to take place, the initiative group will have to collect the signatures of voters, the coordinator of the interregional campaign of referenda for the references of the mayor’s elections, Sergei Mikhailov, notes. In the area of ​​Maryino, according to July 2017, 252 thousand people live, in turn, almost 172 thousand people in Lublino. This means that the organizations “For a comfortable environment” must collect more than 21 thousand signatures of local residents in two weeks.

Earlier about the possibility of holding referendums on topical local problems as a way of increasing the appearance, the mayor of Yekaterinburg Evgeny Roizman warned.

“The presence of a referendum on an important issue affecting the inhabitants of large regions will really increase the turnout of the voters,” confirms the head of the Open Russia Department, Alexei Dulenkov, who heads the initiative group for the organization of referendum for the return of direct elections of mayors. “We also wanted to hold our referendum on the day of the presidential election, thereby offering to increase the turnout in exchange for the return of local democracy, but the deputies of the Moscow Region rejected our initiative, we decided not to experience fate.”

Sergei Mikhailov notes that referendums, on the one hand, will increase the appearance in the presidential election, and on the other, to involve more voters in voting on issues made to a referendum.

- Against this background, the authorities initiated referendums in the Volgograd region to change the clock and Komi on the transfer of the capital from Syktyvkar to Ukhtu. That is, when the issues of “innocent”, the authorities do not interfere with referendum, and when we try to return direct elections of mayors (according to the Levada Center survey, 2/3 of Russians supported such an initiative), they will block the proposal because they will damage everyone who canceled them. On “painful” issues, a referendum will not risk holding a referendum on the day of the election.