“The law is silent”: what is known about the procedure for voting the Constitution of the Russian Federation

In the Krasnoyarsk Territory, a working group was created to monitor the implementation of the electoral rights of citizens of the regional public chamber. This is a group of experts who will monitor the electoral process on April 22. Their tasks include a set of volunteers as observers.

It is known that any citizen of Russia over 18 years old can become. And that's all for now. After all, the procedure of this set is still not clear - the Public Chamber has not yet issued an order. But the order of the plebiscite itself will pass by analogy with any other elections, for example presidential, the organizers say.

“The procedure, in principle, in my opinion, is clear today. That is, the CEC has already developed a ballot, since the president’s decree on the voting day has already been released, in the near future all the documents all projects will be posted on the website of the CEC and, in principle, it will be possible to get acquainted with them. The GAS election system will work. It will be reprogrammed for ballots for all -Russian voting, from 8:00 to 20:00, plots will work, our observers will be controlled there and exercise, ”said Evelina Pavelyeva, a member of the working group of the Public Chamber of the Territory, expert of the Independent Public Monitoring association.

The experts of the working group gathered a press conference to tell reporters about how still a nationwide vote on constitutional amendments will take place. Communication turned out to be abstract and streamlined. It is as if experts themselves still do not understand the regulations of plebiscite. Though exactly a month remained before him.

So, it is known that in the Krasnoyarsk Territory 2 thousand 200 polling stations, in which on April 22, people will be able to vote for or against amendments to the basic law of the country. Each site should have at least two observers, who, as in the presidential election, will monitor the voting procedure.

“There should be at least 2 people on each site. We assume so. In order to ensure that the work is organized normally. That is, they should not be less than 2, but there should not be a huge amount in order not to interfere with work. Do not complicate the work. Absolutely, ” Natalya Grushevskaya, chairman of the Public Chamber of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, said at the conference.

Next, the lawyers of the working group take the word. They, in turn, promise to explain to public observers and everyone the order of voting, will tell about the corrections themselves.

“The next task that faces the Association of Lawyers is, of course, participating in providing free legal assistance, accepting people, giving them explanations. Indeed, of course, everyone needs to explain what a popular voting is when it will pass if people have questions, ”added Svetlana Zylevich, chairman of the regional branch of the Association of Russian Lawyers.

And people, of course, will have questions. Especially if we take into account that the format of popular voting and its procedure even among lawyers and jurists raise questions. After all, this is not a referendum, which is registered in federal law, explains lawyer Ivan Khoroshev.

The law on the amendment to the Constitution Vladimir Putin signed on Saturday, March 14. Thus, he approved the road map of the campaign, but not the amendments themselves. And on Monday, without putting off in a long box, the Constitutional Court approved this law. However, it is still not clear from the text of the document what legal force the popular vote possesses.

“This vote is not in the procedure for adopting the law. There is a procedure that is spelled out - these are three approval by the State Duma, approval by the Federation Council, and the presidential signing. The procedure for the adoption of the federal law contains no vote. And what kind of voting is it incomprehensible. How it will be carried out is incomprehensible. And it is only now adopted in some way, some responsibility for it has been introduced, but it does not contain the status of the last instance upon approval of the federal law. We have all the time a reference: "If people support." And the people in this case have nothing to do with it, ”lawyer Ivan Khoroshev shared with the TVC Krasnoyarsk.

The voting procedure, the rules of agitation, the text of the ballot is not approved. The voting sheet will not contain information about the essence of amendments to the Constitution, as they are too voluminous. Therefore, the text will be reached in other ways. What? Nobody knows yet. But it is already known that it will not work to vote selectively. Either for all amendments, or against.

“The procedure for conducting the vote itself is supposed, as I understand it, to approve the presidential decree. This is not provided for by any legislative act. The referendum law itself is not applicable to this procedure at all. No changes were made to it. Accordingly, under a legal act, it is wrong to affirm a fairly important procedure, which concerns the change in the constitution, in my opinion, is wrong.

The problem is also in another - the elements of control over this vote, the rules of agitation - they are not spelled out in the current legislation. They will be registered in this decree. And then, it is still incomprehensible as this will happen, ” - the head of the department of constitutional law, SFU Andrei Kondrashev.

Recent days in the media are information about a possible change in the date of popular vote on amendments to the Constitution. The reason is coronavirus. However, in addition to the health of Russians, coronavirus also poses a political threat - a decrease in the turnout, which this year is on the vote by 60%.

“About the turnout again - these are only forecasts, how can we predetermine this with you. Given the different aspects of the current situation in the country, in particular, related to coronavirus, I don’t know, it is difficult to say what indicators determine this outcome. Well ... we will work, ”said Alina Almieva, a member of the Electoral Commission of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, told TSK Krasnoyarsk.

Now, between the "eternal" Putin and the rest of Russia, only a vote remained. True, many are now perplexed why it is necessary to take part in this procedure if the president has already signed everything. Representatives of the authorities explain this by the fact that now Putin has approved only the procedural part of the campaign.

Changes to the Constitution will come into force if they are supported by more than half of the voting participants. Although it is unlikely that now there are people who think that something else could change.

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