The Yabloko faction believes that it has managed to considerably improve the draft law “On Political Parties” compared to the variant adopted in the first reading.

According to the deputies of the faction, the possibilities for interference by control bodies in the performance of the parties, first and foremost the Public Prosecutor’s Office, represented the main threat in the variant of the draft adopted by the State Duma in the first reading on February 7, 2001.

The position of the Yabloko faction can be summed up as follows: the role of the Public Prosecutor’s Office should be reduced to constitutional norms which determine the functioning of this law-enforcement structure. The punitive functions of the Public Prosecutor’s Office should not apply to the political parties in Russia. Similarly these functions should be eliminated for all the citizens of Russia.

In the second reading of the draft the Duma adopted the amendment to Article 38 “Control over the Activities of Political Parties” (the amendment was proposed by the Yabloko faction). The previous variant stipulated that the control over the functioning of political parties should be vested in the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the “registration authorities” without any explanation of their composition, allowing for arbitrary interpretation of this clause. The variant of the Yabloko faction stipulates that the controlling function should be vested with theMinistry of Justice only.

The provisions of state financing of the parties are also regarded by the Yabloko faction as an opportunity for the interference of the state executive authorities inš political parties. The mandatory introduction of such a clause would present a danger, as it would create a pretext for setting a tough control over the total finances of the parties, irrespective of the volume of this financing.

A voluntary principle for financing parties, stated in the variant that was adopted in the second reading, should make it possible to resolve this problem.

The adoption of these and some other amendments has made the law “On Parties” more democratic and eliminated the odious norms contained in the previous draft. This is a real achievement and in the given circumstances can be assessed as the best possible result. Consequently most of the Yabloko deputies supportedthe draft in the second reading.

By the third reading the deputies of the Yabloko faction will also try to persuade the Duma to eliminate all references to the controlling function of the Public Prosecutor’s Office from all the articles of the draft.

See also:

The law “On Parties” section of the website