Curtailing rights of citizens in elections

On November, 17th the State Duma approved in the third reading a scandalous amendment to election law eliminating the minimum voter turnout requirement for elections and it also eliminates early voting. The bill provoked a stormy reaction among opposition movements, mass media and human rights activists, demanding to abolish all antidemocratic amendments introduced into electoral law during last years. (25-NOV-06)

Under existing law, voter turnout requirement for presidential elections is 50 percent, for parliamentary elections – at least 25 percent and regional elections – 20 percent. When the law comes into force, elections at all levels – from local to the presidential elections – will be considered valid, no matter of the number of voters who actually turned out to vote. These changes were proposed by deputy of the United the Russian Federation party Alexander Moskalets. United the Russian Federation deputies forced the bill through the third reading in the State Duma, with 342 lawmakers voting for it and 99 against, while Communists opposed the bill. The new bill strikes from ballot persons deemed by court as criminals or extremists. It also strikes from ballot persons under administrative penalties for propagating Nazi slogans and regalia. Moreover, the new amendment forbids candidates to release negative information about their rivals in campaign on TV and the mass media and to appeal to the public to vote against other candidate.

 Elections are turning into farce
Leaders of liberal opposition believe that elimination of voter turnout threshold emasculates the idea of people participation in affairs of state. “If it happens, parliamentary elections in the country will turn into a real farce”, said leader of the “Union of Right Forced” Nikita Belykh. During his trips round the country he was convinced that the voters’ interest to elections is “extremely low”, and “in case of approving amendments proposed by the United the Russian Federation deputies the process of peoples complete removal from ruling the country will be over”. Sergey Ivanenko, Vice-Chairman of “Yabloko” party, in his turn, considers that the elimination of the minimum turnout requirement for elections will destroy the electoral system once and for all. “In such a case it would be more fair to appoint not only governors but deputies too in order not to spoil the holiday for people, which falls on the day of parliamentary elections”, said Ivanenko. According to him, after such a step the Russian Federation “would be automatically enrolled in a list of countries, where is no trace of democracy”. The situation would be carried to a point of absurdity – even if one person comes to parliamentary elections they will be proclaimed valid.

Antidemocratic changes in the election Law
Participants of “Political Consultation”, established in the frame work of civil forum “Other Russia” (which unites representatives of different opposition and non-governmental organizations) appealed to leaders of executive and legislative authorities of the country, demanding “to completely restore citizens’ electoral rights and to cancel all legislative changes of the last years”. Their statement enumerates the following negative  changes in the Russian election Law:
– abolishion of direct election of regional leaders (now the President appoints regional governors);
– increasing a number of members required of a political party to be registered;
– depriving citizens of their right to self-nomination;
– ban to form pre-election coalitions;
– elimination of the option “against all” from ballot;
– further raising the barrier to smaller parties entering parliament;
– restricting the right to invite observers to the elections;
– canceling elections of independent regional candidates (now only members of political parties could be candidates to regional legislative institutions and to the State Duma);
– introducing a higher barrier for political parties to enter the State Duma and regional legislative assemblies;
– and finally, adoption of the bill to cancel early voting and the minimum turnout requirement.

Rival candidates could be declared extremists
The Public Chamber of the Russian Federation and human rights activists oppose the bill, considering the abolition of the minimum turnout requirement as antidemocratic measure. “The state power would be illegal if it’s not elected by the majority. Elimination of the minimum turnout violates principles of the Constitution which states that authorities are elected by the majority of population”, said Chairwoman of the Commission on Development of Civil Society in the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation Maria Slobodskaya. Experts share the opinion that the bill eliminating voter turnout requirement almost certainly will become law. They also believe that the bill is directed against any party except the ruling one. According to them, members of United the Russian Federation intend to eliminate all rivals in elections, because almost every statement of the opposition could be interpreted as an extremist one.

Protest action against election law was broken up
On November, 23rd in Moscow leaders of youth organizations held an unauthorized protest action against adoption of the new amendments, demanding to liberalize the election law. Leader of youth “Yabloko” Ilya Yashin and leader of youth movement “Da” Maria Gaidar abseiled from the Bolshoy Kamenniy bridge and unrolled above Moscow River a poster with a slogan: “Return the people elections, bustards!” About ten activists from the youth movements were shouting slogans: “Russia without Putin”, “Down with military state!”. As a result police detained a few persons, including Ilya Yashin, Maria Gaidar and “Gazeta.ru” reporter Ilya Barabanov.