“Apple” did not fit in the filter – Newspaper Kommersant No. 144 (7345) of 08/10/2022
[ad_1]
Veliky Novgorod Duma deputy Anna Cherepanova (Yabloko), who ran for governor of the region, sued opponents from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Liberal Democratic Party, A Just Russia – For Truth and the Pensioners’ Party, as well as the current head of the region Andrei Nikitin, who is counting on to be re-elected from United Russia. Ms. Cherepanova believes that, by their actions, the defendants artificially deprived her of the opportunity to collect the number of signatures of municipal deputies necessary to participate in the gubernatorial elections. According to Ms. Cherepanova, the candidates together and with the use of administrative resources organized a massive collection of autographs from municipalities, some of which were not even provided to the election commission.
The Novgorod regional court will begin to consider the claim of Anna Cherepanova (available to Kommersant) on August 11. Among the defendants are the governor of the Novgorod region Andrei Nikitin (United Russia), deputies of the regional Duma Alexei Prokopov (Pensioners’ Party) and Alexei Chursinov (LDPR), deputy of the City Duma of Veliky Novgorod Sergei Shrub (Fair Russia – For Truth), as well as an assistant to the deputy State Duma and the first secretary of the regional committee of the Communist Party Olga Efimova. All of them were registered as candidates for the elections of the head of the region, which will be held on September 9-11. Ms. Cherepanova herself did not succeed, as she could not overcome the so-called municipal filter. According to the law of the Novgorod region “On the election of the governor”, in order to participate in the gubernatorial campaign, a candidate must collect at least 10% of the signatures of municipal deputies in his support. Each municipality can only sign for one gubernatorial candidate. Of the 114 required autographs, Ms. Cherepanova was able to collect only 14, and on August 7, the election commission refused to register her. Recall that similar restrictions exist for the election of governors in other regions.
In the Novgorod region, only United Russia has the necessary number of municipal deputies to pass the “municipal filter” on its own. Candidates from other parties need to either enlist her support, or try to get autographs from self-nominated or deputies of opposing parties.
According to Ms. Cherepanova’s lawsuit, other gubernatorial candidates “as a result of common joint actions (conspiracy) according to a pre-planned scheme” organized a “centralized collection” of signatures from municipalities. According to Yabloko, it took place on June 22-23, while she herself submitted documents for nomination to the election commission only on June 25 (only from that moment she could start collecting signatures). From a survey of local deputies, Ms. Cherepanova concluded that officials from municipal administrations divided them among the other five candidates and ensured that they were “delivered” to notaries for signature certification by a pre-agreed date and time.
The law allows the creation of a reserve of 5% when collecting signatures. However, the oppositionist claims that some of the collected autographs were not even submitted to the election commission. She drew such conclusions from her conversations with municipalities and checking the data published by the election commission.
The actions of the opponents blocked the opportunity for the oppositionist to register as a candidate for governor, the lawsuit says. Anna Cherepanova also refers to a 2012 ruling by the Constitutional Court, according to which an excessive number of deputies’ signatures collected is an “unacceptable artificial obstacle” to the nomination of other candidates. The politician asks to recognize the actions of opponents as illegal and force the election commission to review the registration results.
Aleksey Prokopov, a candidate from the Party of Pensioners, told Kommersant that he and his headquarters had already begun to prepare objections to the lawsuit: “We have a law, everyone must comply with it. It is necessary to collect signatures – she did not collect. I have 119 signatures from the required 114, what are the claims against me?
Sergei Rumyantsev, a member of the Novgorod Regional Electoral Commission with an advisory vote (appointed by Andrey Nikitin), believes that the circumstances stated in the lawsuit do not stand up to criticism: “I see no grounds for satisfying the lawsuit. A similar invoice was in the complaint of Ms. Cherepanova to the prosecutor’s office, and the supervisory authority did not find any violations. Interviews were conducted both among the deputies, not one of whom complained of pressure or bribery, as well as the candidates themselves, in whose actions nothing illegal was found.” He added that usually candidates hold preliminary negotiations with deputies: “Unlike campaigns for legislative bodies, the initiative to sign comes from the signatory. That is, the deputies themselves, at their own expense, certified the signatures at the notary’s office and brought them. Candidate headquarters select the required number and hand it over to the election commission.”
Political consultant Evgeny Minchenko believes that the collection of extra signatures should be limited by law: “That is, if a candidate has overcome the barrier, then he should not collect signatures anymore.” Ideally, according to the expert, the collection of autographs should be carried out electronically, through the State Services portal: this, according to Mr. Minchenko, will exclude “marriage”, and immediately after overcoming the filter, such a system can be closed. “But since the current situation is convenient for managing the political agenda and the composition of candidates, this idea, obvious in its simplicity, is unlikely to be accepted,” the expert noted.
According to electoral lawyer Roman Smirnov, such situations are common: one such example was the gubernatorial campaign in Sevastopol in 2017, when, according to other candidates, and. about. Governor Dmitry Ovsyannikov collected the signatures of 70% of the municipal deputies, but they were not particularly successful in proving the violation of their rights. The expert notes that in the electoral legislation there is not even such a thing as “collusion”, and it is almost impossible to prove such a violation. The expert believes that the legislative suppression of such situations is unlikely, so candidates must negotiate in advance with municipal deputies, heads of settlements. “This is politics: the municipal filter was conceived so that candidates for governor get acquainted and interact with municipal authorities,” the expert sums up.
[ad_2]
Source link
