Press Release, 18.04.2019

Photo: Yelena Dubrovina

On 16 April, Yabloko held a discussion on the Concept of reforming the electoral system of the Russian Federation. Dr. Yelena Dubrovina, member of the Central Electoral Commission of Russia in 1999–2016, head of the Centre for Legislative Initiatives of the Yabloko Party and  member of its Federal Political Committee, presented draft amendments to the electoral legislation.

The draft has already been submitted to experts in the field of electoral processes, at the Federal Council of Yabloko in December 2018, as well as to members of the Federal Political Committee of the party. This time the party invited politicians and political consultants to a discussion.

The main goal of the reform proposed by Yabloko’s Centre for Legislative Initiatives is the reduction of the impact of the administrative resource on the result of the voting and transformation the “faked elections” into “real elections”. In view of this Yelena Dubrovina proposed transformation of the electoral system in order to return lections to competitive basis. She also proposed to reform the electoral system: to recognise the inconsistency of monopolisation of all electoral actions by electoral commissions, create other electoral bodies to perform certain functions in the electoral process with strict adherence to the principle of equal representation of parliamentary and non-parliamentary parties in such bodies.

Photo: Yelena Dubrovina and Emilia Slabunova

Dubrovina also proposed to amend the Constitution, supplementing the text of the Basic Law with a new Chapter – Chapter 3.1. In the opinion of the author of the draft, the new chapter should reflect the list of public authorities elected by the population, impose a ban on forced voting and election campaigning by the authorities. Also the Constitution should envisage the obligation of the media to ensure equal opportunities for candidates in elections in covering their campaigns.

In addition, Yelena Dubrovina also proposed to transfer to the declarative nature of voter registration, following the example of some European countries, such as France and the United Kingdom. This measure will reduce the possibility of using ballots of citizens who do not participate in elections for falsifying the results. Such pre-registration will help increase voter accountability for the electoral process.

The party also advocates complete abolition of the municipal filter, the right to create electoral blocs for political parties, introduction of electoral pledges, and reduction of the election threashold for political parties to 2 per cent.

The meeting was attended by Emilia Slabunova, Chair of the Yabloko party, Igor Mintusov, President of the European Association of Political Consultants,  politician Gennady Gudkov, Dmitry Gudkov, Chairman of the Party of Changes, Konstantin Merzlikin, Deputy Chairman of the PARNAS party, Roman Smirnov, President of the Political Lawyers Association, Alexei Kurtov, President of the Russian Association of Political Advisers,  Boris Nadezhdin, President of the Institute for Regional Projects and Legislation, Irina Alebastrova, expert in the field of constitutional law and Professor of the Higher School of Economics, Nikolai Vasilyev, municipal deputy of the Moscow municipal district Presnensky, Vyacheslav Igrunov, Director of the Institute of Humanitarian and Political Studies, and Boris Misnik, Coordinator of the Federal Political Committee of the Yabloko party.

Photo: Igor Mintusov

In general the experts approved most of the provisions of the presented Concept, noting the need to refine some of the wording. However, some of them expressed doubts about the possibility to drastically change the situation with elections solely through changes in legislation. Boris Nadezhdin, for example, said that 90 per cent of the problems in the electoral system were in the field of law enforcement, of which 40 per cent were attributed to the use of administrative resource, and 50 per cent to fraud.

Photo: Dmitry Gudkov and Gennady Gudkov

“The opposition can be considered real, and not a toy, when it can develop serious documents, that can be used by the present government any time. It is necessary to develop an alternative that can be used when coming to power,” Vyacheslav Igrunov, Director of the Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies, noted.

Photo: Vyacheslav Igrunov

Photo: Alexei Kurtov

Photo: Konstantin Merzlikin