Liberal Democratic Party proposes to separate charity from bribing voters
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Deputies from the Liberal Democratic Party, headed by its leader Leonid Slutsky, plan to introduce amendments to the State Duma on Thursday to lift the ban on charitable activities for parties and candidates during the election period, if it is carried out in new regions of the Russian Federation. Other Duma parties were skeptical about the initiative of their colleagues: according to the parliamentarians, it is one thing to help, another thing is to use this assistance for election purposes, and humanitarian aid can be sent to new territories without a party logo.
According to part 5 of Art. 56 of the law on guarantees of electoral rights, candidates and parties participating in elections during the election campaign are not entitled to engage in charity. The Liberal Democratic Party in its bill (Kommersant has it) proposes to lift this ban “in the event that engaging in charitable activities, providing material, financial assistance or services are aimed at assisting in the performance of tasks during a special military operation in the territories of Ukraine, the Donetsk People’s Republic, Luhansk People’s Republic, Zaporizhzhya region and Kherson region.
In the explanatory note, the authors note that at the moment such a ban “largely contradicts the state and public interests”: “Voluntary and selfless assistance has become large-scale since the beginning of the pandemic of a new coronavirus infection in 2020. Even more citizens of Russia united, supporting our fighters and commanders at the front, as well as residents of the regions who returned to their native harbor. Humanitarian aid is going everywhere. Active participants in this process are political parties and people who have now become candidates for legislative and representative bodies of power.”
According to the Liberal Democrats, due to the ban on charity, the flow of humanitarian aid to residents of new regions “if it doesn’t dry up, then it will significantly decrease” and many people “will be left without medicines, necessary household items, products.”
In general, this rule is useful because it “prevents the possibility of bribing voters,” but now it “brings significant damage to the flow of humanitarian aid, which is provided, among other things, by political parties, candidates, and other persons during the period of election campaigns,” the authors of the draft summarize. .
The proposed amendments do not affect the procedure for preparing and holding elections, Leonid Slutsky emphasized in a conversation with Kommersant: “This initiative specifically removes the restriction on the charitable activities of parties or candidates in order to facilitate the fulfillment of the tasks of the SVO. Here all political forces must act shoulder to shoulder in the interests of the front.” The leader of the Liberal Democratic Party made the reservation that changing the current legislation is “a slow issue,” but expressed the hope that election commissions in the new regions of the Russian Federation “will distinguish the grain from the chaff, and bribing voters from noble humanitarian missions.”
Representatives of other parties actively involved in sending humanitarian aid to new regions were not enthusiastic about the idea of the Liberal Democratic Party.
For example, Deputy Secretary of the General Council “United Russia” Sergei Perminov believes that now is not the time to change the electoral legislation: “New regions form the political system and electoral traditions. Normative regulation of the “fine” facets of electoral procedures in our country “suffered” and formulated in such a way as not to call into question the legality of the will of the country’s citizens. Should this balance be destroyed? Don’t think”.
According to the deputy CPRF Alexandra Yushchenko, help and advertising of this help are two different things. He reminded Kommersant that the Communist Party has been carrying humanitarian convoys to Donbass since 2014 and will continue to do so. “As for the election campaign, such a proposal opens up certain collisions associated with excessive PR of its activities, which the Liberal Democratic Party often does. Nothing prevents even now to help, but without the party logo. And when the election campaign is over, you can return the logo. We see this as an opportunity for speculation on humanitarian aid and attempts to assign points during the election campaign,” the communist explained.
First deputy head of the faction “Fair Russia – For Truth” (SRZP) Oleg Nilov noted that the deputies would not have time to adopt amendments to the current elections, but now, in any case, it is necessary to “support the participants of the SVO and their families with all the possibilities available to parties, deputies and candidates.” “I believe that parties should allocate 90% of their funds to help SVO participants and their families and tell voters who are in other regions about it. And use election banners to popularize those organizations that support NWO members and their families,” the deputy said, recalling the instruction of the leader of the SRZP Sergei Mironov to each deputy and activist to take custody of the family of a member of the NWO.
“Election campaigns in any territory are held every five years for three months. We in the SRWP have provided and will continue to refuse assistance to new territories,” added Dmitry Gusev, another deputy from the SRHR, “And no restriction in the law will force our party to abandon what we have done, are doing and will do.”
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