For myself, but not for that guy – Picture of the Day – Kommersant

The Supreme Court of Chuvashia partially satisfied the claim of a group of residents of the region against the State Council (parliament) of the republic, depriving deputies of the right to vote for their absent colleagues. In the leadership of the State Council, the presence of such a norm in the regulations was explained by the fact that parliamentarians working on a non-permanent basis do not always have the opportunity to personally attend meetings. But the court listened to the plaintiffs, who said that voting “by proxy” is not provided for by either federal or republican laws.

The operative part of the decision on the suit of 12 citizens against the State Council of Chuvashia was announced by the judge of the Supreme Court of the republic Tatyana Evlogieva on April 13. She decided to invalidate the regulations of the State Council, allowing a deputy working on a non-professional basis to transfer his vote to another deputy “due to absence from the meeting for good reasons.” The plaintiffs also disputed the clause that a professional deputy, in case of absence from the session, has the right to send a statement to the speaker of the State Council with the expression “his position on any issue on the agenda”, but the judge refused to satisfy this requirement.

As stated in the lawsuit, the contested provisions of the regulations allow deputies to evade their direct duties and not take personal part in parliamentary sessions, which leads to a violation of the legal meaning of the law “On the Status of a Deputy of the State Council of the Chuvash Republic”.

And such grounds for the transfer of vote mentioned in the regulations, as vacation and business trip, are not a good reason for a deputy not to fulfill his duties, the applicants insisted.

In addition, they emphasized that “the right of a deputy to vote for other deputies is not provided for” either by the laws of the Russian Federation or the laws of the Chuvash Republic.

“Many times we observed at the sessions the meeting room not filled with deputies,” the representative of the plaintiffs, lawyer Vyacheslav Medvedev, told Kommersant. “But according to the results of the voting, the absent deputies voted. The trick, as we found out, turned out to be simple: the absent deputies gave their vote to their colleagues, who, on their behalf, pressed the “by proxy” button. The norms of the regulations of the State Council allow the deputies to do this, so we went to court.”

In his written objections to the lawsuit, Chairman of the State Council Leonid Cherkesov, in particular, noted that the majority of deputies of the State Council, working on the job, “replace senior positions in educational and healthcare institutions, large financial, agricultural and industrial enterprises and organizations.”

And “due to the need to fulfill their labor and official duties, these deputies do not always have the opportunity to take part in the sessions in person,” the speaker explained.

In turn, representatives of the legal service of the State Council during the trial stated that in the laws of the Russian Federation and Chuvashia there is no direct prohibition on the transfer of votes by deputies, and norms similar to those of the Chuvash operate in 20 constituent entities of the Russian Federation, without naming, however, specific regions.

Commenting on the decision of the court to Kommersant, Vyacheslav Medvedev said that the court “agreed with the position of the plaintiffs” and now “vacation, business trip, etc. are not a good reason for a deputy not to fulfill his duties.”

According to him, in a number of regions it is really allowed to transfer a vote from one deputy to another, but in most subjects of the Russian Federation there is no such rule. The lawyer also recalled that in the State Duma, since 2016, voting for another deputy is considered a violation of the regulations and, unlike Chuvashia, there is no “half-empty hall and mass voting by proxy” there.

Press Secretary of the Chairman of the State Council Viktor Vavilkin told Kommersant that the parliament has so far refrained from commenting. “The decision will be made after the State Council receives the reasoning part of the court decision,” he explained.

The leader of the LDPR faction in the State Council, the coordinator of the Chuvash branch of the party, Konstantin Stepanov, called the topic relevant, confirming to Kommersant that sessions of the Chuvash parliament often take place in a half-empty hall. According to him, this issue has been discussed more than once in the State Council, various amendments have been made to the regulations, but the situation has not changed. Although the sessions are held once a month, they last, as a rule, one day and “each deputy is quite capable of fulfilling his duties and personally participating in the work of the session,” Mr. Stepanov concluded.

Oleg Yeruslanov, Cheboksary