The Constitutional Court to consider Yabloko’s complaint about disqualification from regional elections due to delay with data from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities
Press Release, 20.01.2025
Photo: A session of the Constitutional Court / Photo by Alexander Koryakov, Kommersant
On 17 January, the Constitutional Court of Russia reported that at its session on 16 January, the court accepted for consideration the complaint of the Pskov regional branch of the Yabloko party about the violation of its constitutional rights by the provisions of the federal laws “On Non-Commercial Organisations”, “On State Registration of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs”, “On Political Parties”, “On the Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Right to Participate in a Referendum of Citizens of the Russian Federation”, as well as the Electoral Code of the Pskov Region in connection with the interpretation by courts of general jurisdiction of the moment of the emergence of the powers of the head of an electoral association to sign documents necessary for registering a list of candidates.
On 17 January, the judge-rapporteur on the case informed the Chairman of the Pskov Yabloko Artur Gaiduk about accepting the complaint for consideration.
On 24 June, 2023, Artur Gaiduk was elected Chairman of the Pskov Yabloko, after which all the necessary documents were submitted to the Ministry of Justice. The conference of the Pskov regional branch of Yabloko on the nomination of candidates for deputies took place on 16 July in the presence of a representative of the Ministry of Justice, and Artur Gaiduk was entered into the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRLE) on 18 July, and the term of this action did not depend on the party.
After the registration of the party’s lists for the elections in seven districts of the region, identical claims were filed in the courts from the same representatives of pro-government parties – the Party of Growth, A Just Russia and the Party of Pensioners – to cancel the registration of the Yabloko lists on the grounds that Artur Gaiduk, elected on 24 June, allegedly could not perform the duties of the head of the electoral association until 18 July, when information about him was entered into the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. The Pskov Yabloko called the attack political. The representative of the Electoral Commission of the Pskov Region supported the claims of pro-government parties against Yabloko in all court hearings.
The registration of Yabloko candidates nominated in single-mandate constituencies was not contested.
The claims of the pro-government partie, despite the absurdity of the stated position, were satisfied by district courts in the same wordings, upheld by the Pskov Court, the Third Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction and the Supreme Court of Russia.
Moreover, the judge of the Supreme Court indicated in her rulings that “the cancellation of court decisions cannot lead to the restoration of the applicant’s rights”, meaning that the elections were over. Accordingly, neither legality nor justice can or should be restored by the court. At the same time, the courts were guided by the Civil Code, not the election legislation, when qualifying electoral legal relations.
Disagreeing with this approach of the courts of general jurisdiction, Pskov Yabloko filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court of Russia on 6 October, 2024. After a preliminary study by the judges, the complaint was accepted for consideration. This means that the court, after a collegial discussion at a separate session, will issue a ruling on the complaint. This is the first complaint by Pskov Yabloko accepted for consideration by the Constitutional Court.
The representative of Pskov Yabloko, the author of the complaint to the Constitutional Court, lawyer Vitaly Isakov, notes on the case:
Jurisprudence should support reality, not distort it. But Pskov courts are legalising absurd practices.
Just before the 2023 election campaign, the Constitutional Court issued a ruling stating that if an electoral commission finds any errors in the documents, it is obliged to immediately notify the person who submitted these documents. The electoral commission is prohibited from refusing registration without providing an opportunity to correct the deficiency.
It is still unknown whose rights would have been violated by the participation of candidates nominated by Pskov Yabloko in the elections, whose rights were infringed upon by the fact that Artur Gaiduk was elected Chairman, but due to red tape Federal Tax Service and the Ministry of Justice, he was included in the unified state register of legal entities on the last day. Especially in the context of the fact that at the time of submitting the documents to the electoral commission, Artur Gaiduk’s powers were already listed in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
We also draw attention of the Constitutional Court to the fact that an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities is not a necessary document for nominating candidates, and electoral commissions do not require such an extract. That is, we are evaluating in the Constitutional Court the fantasy developed by the team of opponents for its adequacy and necessity in a democratic state.
Posted: January 20th, 2025 under Elections, Governance, Human Rights, Judiciary, Political Parties, Regional and Local Elections, Regional and Local Elections 2023, YABLOKO Against the Parties of Power, Yabloko's Regional Branches.