Decision No 107 of Yabloko’s Federal Political Committee, 6.03.2019

In 2018, the electoral system of modern Russia celebrated its 25th anniversary. At this time political organisations, movements and political parties were born.

However, today confidence of Russians in elections has dropped to almost a zero level, almost like in Soviet times, when elections were not perceived by anyone as a real institution of a possible change of government.

The electoral campaigns of 2018, both the presidential election campaign in March and the regional and local elections on the single voting day in September, once again demonstrated that elections had virtually lost their main function: that of a mechanism for ensuring the turnover of power by the will of citizens. The electoral system is built in such a way so that to solve the opposite task: to ensure the irremovability of power regardless of the will of citizens. That is why the electoral legislation has been changing in the past 15 years in such a way so that to make realization of citizens’ electoral rights as difficult as possible, rather than, on the opposite, to facilitate it to the maximum extent.

The key problem of the Russian elections is imitation. In the absence of a real alternative, elections turn into a ritual.

Presentation of artificial parties and candidates created by the authorities to society inevitably leads to disillusionment in society, loss of trust and interest in elections and power in general. Which is really a serious factor destabilising society and the state.

Degradation of the political elite, which is obvious already to everyone, is conditioned by the absence of competition.

The total use of a hard administrative resource as a factor determining the voting results, expressed both in cutting off (preventing) unwanted candidates from participating in the race at the beginning of the campaign, as well as in absolutely cynical disregard by candidates from the authorities of the legislative principles of equality of candidates during media campaigning, forcing voters to participate in elections, voting for specific candidates, and in forcing members of precinct electoral commissions to direct falsification of voting results (stuffing in ballots, substitution of protocols [by fraudulent ones]) leads to the situation when election results do not reflect objective public mood.

The Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO considers preparation and organisation of a broad discussion of the foundations for the new electoral system, which will be created during the upcoming inevitable political reform, be the most important task. It is difficult to predict when precisely it happens, but we must be ready for this. This is our responsibility.

Having examined the proposals submitted by the Centre for Legislative Initiatives of the YABLOKO Party on reforming the electoral system of the Russian Federation, the Federal Political Committee of the Political Party “Russian United Democratic Party YABLOKO”

DECIDED the following:

1. To approve of the first stage of the work of the Centre for Legislative Initiatives of the YABLOKO Party (Elena Dubrovina).
2. Offer the Centre for Legislative Initiatives of the YABLOKO Party (Elena Dubrovina) to formulate a set of urgent measures for protection of citizens’ electoral rights, implementation of which is relevant and timely now and does not contradict the main directions for creation of a new electoral system in Russia.

Grigory Yavlinsky,

Chairman of the Federal Political Committee