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Associated Press, June 3, 2004

Duma Gives Nod to Referendum Bill

The Associated Press

Itar-Tass
Yabloko activists scuffling with police outside the State Duma building during a rally against a bill on referenda Wednesday.
The State Duma on Wednesday tentatively approved a government-proposed bill on referenda, which critics have described as backtracking on democracy.

The Duma, controlled by the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, voted 343-96 to pass the bill in the first of three required readings.

Opposition parties and human rights activists said the bill, which tightens the criteria for holding plebiscites, would make them virtually impossible to organize for groups without links to the government. "The Duma's puppet majority is trying to completely shut the mouth of the Russian people," said Sergei Mitrokhin, a Yabloko activist who led a protest Wednesday outside the Duma.

During the demonstration, activists from Yabloko, the Communist Party and human rights groups picketed the Duma and briefly scuffled with police.

The bill requires that initiative groups of at least 100 people supporting any referendum be registered in at least half of the 89 regions. Currently, only one group of 100 people is required nationwide. Initiators of a referendum would still have to gather 2 million signatures, but they would have 45 days instead of three months to do it.

Central Elections Commission head Alexander Veshnyakov defended the proposed changes Wednesday, saying they were necessary to allow only "socially important issues" to be put to a vote and prevent the use of "dirty election techniques."

United Russia Deputy Georgy Boos said the bill was intended to prevent the nation from "drowning in referenda."

 

See also:

Human Rights

Associated Press, June 3, 2004

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