The deputies will elect the heads of the people’s republics – Newspaper Kommersant No. 244 (7445) dated 12/30/2022

On New Year’s Eve Friday, December 30, deputies of the People’s Council of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) will gather for an extraordinary plenary session to consider the draft new constitution of the LPR, the basic law of the republic already within Russia. The authorities of the region have repeatedly said that they want to have time to adopt the document before the end of the year, however, discussions on some of its provisions went on until the very last moment, Kommersant’s sources say. For example, if it was originally planned to keep direct elections of the head of the subject, then later it was decided to abandon them. According to Kommersant’s information, the draft constitution of the LPR, like that of its Donetsk neighbor, will include a parliamentary model for electing a leader.

The holding of an extraordinary session of the People’s Council of the LPR on Thursday was announced by Parliament Speaker Denis Miroshnichenko (United Russia). According to him, one of the issues on the agenda of the December 30 meeting will be the adoption of a new constitution. “I repeatedly stated last week that we will accept it until the end of the year. We do not refuse such words,” Mr. Miroshnichenko said at a press conference.

The LPR became part of Russia on September 30, along with three other former regions of Ukraine – the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. The federal constitutional laws on the annexation of these territories do not stipulate the time frame during which the legislatures of the new entities must adopt their basic laws, however, Mr. Miroshnichenko and the speaker of the People’s Council of the DPR, Vladimir Bidevka, have repeatedly said that the parliaments will do this before the end of 2022. Recall that in the LPR and DPR, the acting People’s Councils of the republics of the period of their independence are recognized as parliaments. There are no functioning parliaments in the regions: they, according to the accession laws, will be formed on the second Sunday of September 2023.

The basic law of the Russian subject – the constitution or charter – is a fairly standard document. Variability is found only in parts that relate to the names of government bodies, the state language (for example, the head of the DPR Denis Pushilin previously stated that only Russian would be mentioned as the state language in the constitution of the republic), the procedure for electing the governor (head), the number of deputies of the legislative assembly and the architecture of the regional government.

Denis Miroshnichenko said at a press conference that the membership of the People’s Council of the LPR will not change: as before, 50 deputies will sit in it.

United Russia did not disclose other details of the document. A source close to the leadership of the people’s republics told Kommersant that, according to the draft document, the head of the LPR will not be elected by direct popular vote, as was expected from the moment the first constitution was adopted on May 18, 2014 (the first elections were held on November 2 of the same year) but through Parliament. Such an order now exists in the republics of the North Caucasus (except for Chechnya), the Crimea, the Nenets and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Districts.

According to another Kommersant source, the same clause will be in the constitution of the DPR, which the People’s Council of the republic will also adopt today, December 30. However, Vladimir Bidevka did not answer Kommersant’s calls, and the press service of the parliament could not confirm this information.

The interlocutor of Kommersant said that initially the Kremlin’s domestic political bloc considered the possibility of maintaining direct gubernatorial elections in the new territories, but later the concept changed. “

Under martial law, it’s probably more correct to do so,” he said. According to Kommersant’s information, the final decision on this issue was made in the federal center right up to the very last moment.

According to political scientist Rostislav Turovsky, this is an expected decision, since “it would be strange if, against the backdrop of martial law (in force in the new regions since October 19), direct gubernatorial elections were held.” “It is easier to hold elections to regional parliaments, which, apparently, is still being discussed (December 26 Vedomosti they wrote that the presidential administration is discussing options for the relevant amendments), and already the deputy corps to elect the leadership of the region, ”the expert said. Mr. Turovsky explains that control over the territory of the new subjects remains an important factor: holding parliamentary elections in the part controlled by Russian troops will not be a problem, and this will allow organizing a quorum authorized to elect the head of the region.

Andrew Ashes