Elections by prescription – Kommersant

United Russia deputies Pavel Krasheninnikov and Dmitry Vyatkin, as well as Senator Andrey Klishas, ​​on Wednesday introduced amendments to the State Duma on the procedure for holding elections in regions where martial law has been introduced. The current law on martial law prohibits holding elections in these territories, which calls into question the legitimacy of the autumn vote in the four new regions of the Russian Federation. According to the procedure proposed by the authors, the Central Election Commission (CEC) will decide on calling elections under martial law at the initiative of the heads of regions and after consultations with the Ministry of Defense and the FSB. Experts believe that innovations will give the authorities room to maneuver and legal grounds to postpone elections if necessary.

The issue of additional legislative regulation of elections under special conditions arose in connection with a legal conflict between two federal constitutional laws – on martial law and on the admission of four new subjects to the Russian Federation. According to the first document, “on the territory where martial law has been introduced, referendums and elections to state authorities and local self-government bodies are not held.” According to the second, the first legislative elections in Russia in the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions should be held on the second Sunday of September 2023. Martial law in all four regions, introduced by decree of President Vladimir Putin, has been in effect since October 20, 2022.

Pavel Krasheninnikov, chairman of the State Duma Committee on State Building and Legislation, explained to Kommersant that the parliamentarians decided to remove the contradiction between the two constitutional laws precisely by introducing amendments, although from a legal point of view, elections in new territories could have been held without this. “There is such a legal principle “special law is higher than the general one”. Nevertheless, we agreed to introduce amendments in order, on the one hand, to hold the elections in an impeccable manner, and on the other hand, to specify the procedure,” Mr. Krasheninnikov said.

In order to accelerate the consideration of the proposed innovations, changes will be made to two draft laws that are being prepared for the second reading. In one of them (adopted in the first reading on March 14), initially it was only about replacing the words “member of the Federation Council” with “senator of the Russian Federation” in three constitutional laws, including “On martial law”. Now paragraph 4 of Art. 7 of this law, which says that elections are not held under martial law, will be supplemented with a clause: “except for cases when the decision on their appointment is made by the Central Election Commission” in a special order. At the same time, elections can be held both on the entire territory where martial law has been introduced, and on its part.

The authors proposed to enshrine the detailed procedure for calling such elections in another bill regulating, among other things, the specifics of election campaigns in the new territories. Recall that the package of amendments to the law “On Basic Guarantees of Citizens’ Electoral Rights”, adopted in the first reading on April 18, in particular, allows the new constituent entities of the Russian Federation, during the first elections to bodies of state power and local self-government, to establish by their regulations the specifics of the implementation of the federal law on guarantees. In addition, residents of these regions will be able to vote not only with a passport, but also with a “other document”, the voting time may be reduced, and polling stations may appear even outside these regions.

According to the new amendments introduced on May 3, the head of the region in whose territory martial law has been introduced has the right to send a proposal to the CEC to hold elections no earlier than 130 days and no later than 90 days before voting day. The CEC, no later than five days after that, consults with the Ministry of Defense and the FSB, after which it either rejects the governor’s proposal or calls elections, which, if necessary, can be held “with a reduction in the timing of electoral actions.” If elections have already been scheduled, but new circumstances arise in connection with which the preparation and conduct of voting “may pose a threat to the life and health of citizens,” the CEC has the right to postpone the elections and immediately inform the president about this. But if the circumstances that served as the basis for postponing the elections are eliminated, the campaign, also by decision of the Central Election Commission, can be resumed.

Andrey Klishas, ​​Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building, wrote on his Telegram channel that the amendments could be adopted as early as May. In this case, they will come into force before the official start of election campaigns in the regions (relevant decisions must be made by the authorities in the first half of June).

Kommersant sent a request to the Central Election Commission with a request to clarify the format in which the commission’s consultations with the Ministry of Defense and the FSB will be held, as well as whether it will be necessary to change the internal regulations of the commission for this.

According to electoral lawyer Roman Smirnov, on the one hand, the list of agencies involved in the decision-making proposed in the amendments is not wide enough, since other bodies are also involved in the electoral process, for example, courts and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. On the other hand, adding a new participant to the election preparation process is a complication and unnecessary coordination, the expert believes. At the same time, according to him, the proposed scheme dilutes responsibility, and it is not yet clear who exactly will be responsible for possible emergency situations in the course of preparing for the vote.

In addition, there are many other questions about the election procedure in such special conditions, Mr. Smirnov continues: “How to appoint observers, because they should only be local? How to accredit the media during martial law? Or will the elections be covered by conditional military correspondents, but if there are hostilities, then coverage of the elections will not be a priority? There are many nuances, but little time. Therefore, the expert is sure, not only amendments to laws should be adopted, but also step-by-step instructions for all stages of the election procedure in such specific conditions. “The most important thing in this process is the life and health of all participants in the electoral process: voters, members of commissions, candidates,” sums up Roman Smirnov.

Political scientist Ilya Grashchenkov believes that the procedure envisaged by the amendments is an attempt to build a consensus between civil and law enforcement agencies in difficult conditions. “Since in the new regions the military authorities are no less important than the civilian ones, then, accordingly, there is an attempt to organize the interaction of all structures. In fact, this is a call to build a certain system, where everyone acts on the basis of their capabilities. If civil institutions want to hold elections, they must provide a clear strategy for their conduct, and the security forces must confirm that all this is possible and safe. If there is no consensus, no decision on elections is made. In fact, this is the creation of some really operating system specifically for new regions, because the old system is not very suitable for their conditions, ”the expert notes.

The head of the Petersburg Politics Foundation, Mikhail Vinogradov, believes that the proposed scheme gives the authorities more room for maneuver “to be able to make a decision both in the direction of holding elections and in the direction of banning them, depending on the current situation.” And political scientist Alexander Nemtsev admits that not all four new subjects of the Russian Federation will have elections in September. “Perhaps there will be variability, when in some regions these elections will be postponed, and in others they will be held, based on the current agenda. But there is no doubt that this must be done in order for these territories to fully enter the legal system of the Russian Federation, ”he emphasizes.

Ksenia Veretennikova, Elena Rozhkova