The Central Election Commission has opened a recall campaign – Picture of the Day – Kommersant
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The Central Election Commission (CEC) on Wednesday for the first time applied a new provision of the law on the recall of a member of the regional commission recommended by the CEC in case of loss of confidence or poor performance. We are talking about the now former chairman of the Kirov Regional Electoral Committee Maxim Finchenko. At the meeting, it turned out that, in addition to last year’s vacation in Turkey, which was not coordinated with the leadership of the region, there are other claims against Mr. Finchenko. For example, in February of this year, in his haste for his next vacation, he held a meeting of the election commission without a quorum and thus deprived all the adopted decisions of legal force.
The right to recall members of regional election commissions, including their chairmen, whom the CEC itself recommended to the commissions, appeared with the Central Election Commission in 2021 after repeated complaints from CEC chairman Ella Pamfilova about the lack of such an opportunity. The reason for the recall may be poor performance or loss of trust. Now the CEC can submit to the body that, on its recommendation, appointed a member of the commission, a reasoned submission on his recall, along with a candidacy for replacement. This cannot be done in the first year of office of a member of the election commission and during election campaigns.
Maxim Finchenko became the chairman of the Kirov Electoral Commission in December 2021, and before that he served as the head of the administration of the governor and the regional government. At the CEC meeting on December 3, 2021, when he was recommended for election as chairman of the regional commission, Mr. Finchenko made a short speech in which he promised to “make every effort” to justify the trust of his colleagues.
But he failed to fulfill this promise: on March 29, the CEC recalled Maxim Finchenko “due to loss of confidence.” As reported by Kommersant, the Kirov Electoral Commission voted to remove its chairman from office on March 24, and the day before he was excluded from the list of officials admitted to state secrets. Mr. Finchenko himself connected his resignation with a trip to Turkey during last year’s vacation. He assured Kommersant that he had notified of his departure and. O. head of the region (governor Alexander Sokolov was not in Kirov at that moment), but does not remember who exactly, and then the agreement, “given by I. O. Governor dated August 18, 2022”, was completely lost.
At the meeting of the CEC, however, it turned out that the commission has other reasons for dissatisfaction with the work of Maxim Finchenko. Thus, according to Yevgeny Shevchenko, a member of the Central Election Commission in charge of the Kirov region, on February 17, 2023, Mr. Finchenko held a meeting of the election commission in the absence of a quorum, which is why the decisions adopted then lost their legal force.
Moreover, at the same meeting, the chairman added to the number of those present a member of the commission, who was actually at that moment at another meeting in the presence of the media.
“Naturally, it became public knowledge,” Mr. Shevchenko noted. He said that it was this member of the commission who initiated the resignation of Maxim Finchenko. The ex-chairman himself, according to Yevgeny Shevchenko, during his conversation with the CEC members did not deny that he had held a meeting in the absence of a quorum, and explained this by the fact that he was in a hurry to go on vacation and thought that, if necessary, the absent members of the commission would be able to “vote out”.
Another important reason for the decision to dismiss Mr. Finchenko was his violation of the rules for traveling abroad with access to state secrets. “It is important to emphasize that, unfortunately, the media say that the reason for the resignation was exclusively Mr. Finchenko’s departure abroad for a holiday in one of the NATO countries. First, Article 27 of the Constitution is fully operational and establishes the right to travel abroad and return home. And the claims consist only in the fact that, having access to state secrets, receiving an additional payment for this authority, Mr. Finchenko did not notify the relevant authorities of his departure abroad,” Yevgeny Shevchenko explained.
Ella Pamfilova, calling the act of Maxim Finchenko with the mention of the absent member of the commission a forgery, spoke about another similar case. According to her, the CEC asked Mr. Finchenko to send a document confirming the fact that he had been notified of his departure abroad, and in response, he sent a kind of “filkin’s letter”, which did not even have a registration number.
“That is, the second time he tried to mislead. For me, as a leader, this is a complete loss of confidence,” Ms. Pamfilova admitted, adding that this is also a manifestation of disrespect for the CEC.
The deputy chairman of the CEC, Nikolai Bulaev, in turn, assured that “no witch hunt” is being conducted. “We tried to talk comradely and find out what is the reason for this (behavior.— “b”). But yesterday, when I heard him at the preliminary hearing, I would call this reason internal permissiveness, which, I don’t know where, came from the former judge (Maxim Finchenko worked as a federal judge of the Pervomaisky District Court of Kirov, was deputy chairman of this court, and from 2018 to 2020 year headed the regional Ministry of Justice.— “b”),” Mr. Bulaev emphasized.
As a result of the discussion, all 15 members of the CEC unanimously supported the decision to submit a proposal to the governor of the Kirov region on the early termination of the powers of Maxim Finchenko.
In his place, the CEC recommended Galina Burkova, Commissioner for Human Rights in the Kirov Region and a former member of the Regional Electoral Committee.
Maxim Finchenko, when asked by Kommersant to comment on the decision of the CEC, replied that there could be only one comment: “I was accused of falsification, and CEC member Igor Borisov suggested that after voting on the issue of submitting a submission to the governor, the legal service should further study this resolution. That is, perhaps redo the document after it is voted on? It’s out loud. All over the country! It should be noted that in the end, the CEC did not take any decision on “additional study” of the adopted resolution.
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