| A draft law submitted by the President, amending the law
"On Referenda", was adopted at its first reading by the Duma
yesterday. This draft law has been one of the major events in Russian politics
over the past two weeks. There have been no referenda in Russia for 12
years. However, the authorities decided that the legislation should be
tightened urgently. The opposition met the initiative with outrage. The
Communist Party (CPRF) and YABLOKO activists staged a picket in front of
the Duma building at 9:40 a.m. yesterday. Duma members and party functionaries
addressing the protesters repeated again and again that the draft law would
deprive the population of its rights, strengthen authoritarianism, and
curtail democracy. The new edition of the law means that only the authorities
can organize referenda. Existing legislation stipulates the existence of
an initiative group of 100 people, whereas the new law will boost this
figure to 4,500. The initiative group is supposed to include regional subgroups
(100 people each) in no less than half of Russia's regions. Needless to
say, all regional initiators must be citizens of the Russian Federation
permanently resident in the territory in question. Subgroups then have
two months to meet and discuss the question of the referendum and begin
collecting signatures in support of the initiative (2 million signatures
are needed). Each signature must be validated by notaries. The law gives
initiators 45 days to collect the necessary amount of signatures. So-called
consultative referenda (the authorities organize them to obtain the population's
opinion on some matter) will become history. The new law makes the decisions
of the referenda mandatory. In addition, the law includes a list of issues
that may not be submitted for a nationwide referendum. The list includes
extension of the term of office of elected authorities and officials, including
the President of Russia and the Duma, and early termination of their term
of office. Some deputies were amazed at how promptly the draft law passed
all preliminary procedures in the Duma. The document made it to the Duma
on May 19 and all but waltzed through the Legal Department. The day before
yesterday, the matter was discussed at a roundtable conference attended
by Alexander Veshnyakov of the Central Electoral Commission (the structure
that drafted the law in the first place). The conference was promptly followed
by a meeting of the Duma's constitutional law and state-building committee,
which recommended that the draft law should be passed. The committee even
set the date for amendments to the draft law before the second reading
- June 6. Veshnyakov himself presented the draft law to the lower house
of the parliament. He emphasized that renovation of the law on referendums
was a timely move and that "the draft law presented to the Duma draws
on previous experience." Deputies of the opposition didn't share Veshnyakov's
optimism. "It is hardly surprising that the authorities are in so
much hurry to have the law adopted and that lawmakers have only three days
to propose amendments. The ban on referenda expires on May 24, and the
Communist Party is ready to initiate a referendum on a whole number of
vital issues," Valentin Kuptsov of the CPRF faction told this correspondent.
"Besides, the authorities need the general public to be distracted
by these debates over referenda v owing to upcoming unpopular measures,
such as depriving pensioners and the disabled of their privileges."
Alexei Mitrofanov from the LDPR faction sided up with Kuptsov. "I
talked to my voters," he said. "None of them asked for this amendment
of the legislation on referenda. Everyone is worried about the abolition
of benefits and their replacement with cash compensation... In fact, referenda
are something else in Russia. In 1991, the people voted to preserve the
Soviet Union, but it disintegrated. There was the Yes-Yes-No-Yes referendum
in 1993 and everything ended with guns firing on the parliament building."
Defending the draft law, Vladimir Pligin of the United Russia party said
that there was enough democracy in Russia. The draft law eventually passed,
with 343 votes in favour - thanks to United Russia and the LDPR.
See also:
Human
Rights
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Vremya Novostei, June 3, 2004
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