Electoral commissions of new regions do not publish lists of candidates for deputies of legislative assemblies

The election commissions of the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions do not publish lists of names of candidates for deputies of legislative assemblies from political parties: only reports on the facts of their registration appear on the websites. As Konstantin Mazurevsky, a member of the Central Election Commission (CEC), told Vedomosti, lists will not be published in the new regions themselves, based on considerations of the physical security of candidates.

The CEC website also does not have all the information. In a special section with information about the upcoming elections in 2023, there is no data on the campaign (including the names of candidates) in the Kherson region, although they have already been nominated in all new constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

Usually, information from the CEC website allows you to learn quite a lot. For example, opening the page on the election of deputies of the Altai Territory Legislative Assembly, you can see the first financial reports of candidates, a list of those who run for deputies of the regional parliament (both on lists and constituencies). On election day, turnout to polling stations will be reflected there, then – the results of the vote, etc.

As a rule, this information is also duplicated by regional commissions on their resources.

Deputy Chairman of the CEC Nikolai Bulaev reminded Vedomosti that amendments came into force in May, according to which elections in new regions are held in a special order: “Placement of personal data about participants in the electoral process is minimized.” At the same time, data on candidates for deputies are formed in the system of the GAS “Vybory” and posted on the website of the CEC.

On voting days, information about candidates will also be posted at all polling stations: informing citizens in new regions will be organized, as in all regions of Russia, Bulaev explained.

The publication of personal data of candidates may theoretically threaten to get into, for example, the database of the Ukrainian “Peacemaker” (a website that publishes personal data of “persons seen in criticism of the Ukrainian authorities”, which are “actively used by assassins when they receive the corresponding task”) , says electoral lawyer Anton Rudakov. According to him, the law does not directly oblige commissions to publish lists of names, but this follows from the logic of the principle of openness of commissions. “When the commission decides to register a list, it must publish it, and usually the list itself is attached,” the expert says.

At the same time, the interlocutor of Vedomosti in one of the regional election commissions said: the commission does not plan to publish the lists of candidates.

There really is no mandatory requirement for a list of names of candidates, unlike the list of deputies who supported the candidate for governor during the passage of the municipal filter, political strategist Oleg Zakharov confirmed. At the same time, even in applications or in the system of the GAS “Vybory”, only the names of candidates are published, and not detailed personal data, he says. Both experts do not remember the precedents when the lists were not published in the elections to the Legislative Assembly.

Electoral lawyer Roman Smirnov pointed out that the procedure for holding local elections is regulated by regional laws: each subject can independently determine whether election commissions are required to publish lists of candidates for elections. In general practice, the question of the activities of the election commission is open, Smirnov explained. The activity of the electoral commission is public, open, voters should know who is the candidate in a particular territorial group, Smirnov concluded.

At the same time, the parties themselves inform about the lists of candidates on their own initiative. United Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Just Russia, and New People have not published full lists of candidates in any region. The exception, perhaps, was the Liberal Democratic Party, which published the entire list of candidates in the media (in three regions, except for Zaporozhye). True, it is more difficult to verify the reliability of such publications.

“I think that it makes no sense for regional offices to hide our candidates,” Sergei Obukhov, a State Duma deputy and secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, told Vedomosti. According to him, election commissions are obliged to publish such information.

Valeria Merkulova participated in the preparation of the article