Kavkazsky Uzel, Louise Orazayeva, June 7, 2013

The Parliament of the Kabardino-Balkaria has made changes to its regulations as regards the right of the parties that are not represented in the legislative body to participate in the plenary sessions. The changes were made in connection with a lawsuit by the YABLOKO party in the Supreme Court of the Republic.

According to Kavkazsky Uzel (The Caucasian Knot), on June 3, the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria began hearings on the suit of the YABLOKO party on recognising invalid the legal act stipulating that representatives of non-parliamentary political parties have no right to speak at meetings of the regional legislative assembly. The regional branch of YABLOKO stated that the Parliament of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic was not implementing the federal law “On Political Parties”.

On June 4, the Supreme Court of the Republic revealed that on May 30 the Parliament of Kabardino-Balkaria introduced changes to its regulations that should take off the controversial issue from the agenda, Irina Dombrovskaya, lawyer of the YABLOKO party said to the Kavkazsky Uzel.

“The court adjourned the meeting on June 18 so that wait for publication of the decision adopted by the parliament,” Dombrovskaya noted.

The information was confirmed by Aslan Hamukov, head of the Legal Department of the Parliament of the Republic.

According to Hamukov, the parliament edited the regulations so that to remove the discrepancies and replaced the controversial wording taken from the Regulations of the State Duma of the RF “the candidates’ lists not allowed to the distribution of seats in accordance with the results of the voting” by a reference to the federal law “On Political Parties”.

“It is not the regulations of the Parliament of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic which sets what parties are not represented, it is the prerogative of the federal legislature – the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, which gave an interpretation of this concept in its regulations by defining, in particular, that those parties the federal candidates lists of which were not allowed to distribution of mandates proceeding from the results of the voting are invited to the State Duma meetings (Article 14 and 38 of the State Duma Regulations – Note by the Kavkazsky Uzel). This is the only interpretation of this concept at present, the federal legislation contains no other,” Hamukov said.

The Parliament of the Kabardino-Balkaria acting in this case as a law enforcer determined in its regulations the order of participation of these parties in the parliament’s sessions. In this respect the Parliament of Kabardino-Balkaria understands political parties not represented in the State Duma or the regional parliament, exactly in the sense in which the federal legislative body – the State Duma of the Russian Federation – understands it,” Hamukov explained.

At the same time, according to Hamukov, the Parliament of the republic has never limited the rights of parties expressing a desire to speak at its meeting. On the contrary, the regulations of Parliament grants the right to attend and speak at the Parliament’s meetings not only to all the political parties, but also to all public associations, as well as citizens, as is envisaged by Article 40-1 of the Regulations.

Aslan Hamukov also said that the regional branch of the YABLOKO party forwarded to the Parliament a single letter – at the end of February 2013 – with a request to levy the “misunderstandings” and give a “written response on the essence of the application”, rather than an application for participation in the Parliaments’ meetings. Therefore, the explanation given by the Parliament with a reference to the federal legislative body, can not be regarded as a refusal of Parliament to the party in response to the stated intention to participate in its meetings.

At the hearings of the case Hamukov noted that regardless of the outcome of the case, the YABLOKO party, like any other party, shall be entitled to attend the meeting of Parliament; whereas the YABLOKO party may have a speech already at the next session of parliament, as the issues has been already agreed upon with the Chair of the Parliament.