The parties were put on the shield – Kommersant

The Ulyanovsk department of the Federal Antimonopoly Service initiated a case on signs of violation of the law when placing advertisements of political parties in the region. The applicant (his name is not disclosed by the OFAS) believes that the appearance of such billboards before the start of the campaign period violates the requirements of the advertising and election laws. The Regional Electoral Committee sees no violations in this, and party members remind that the placement of political advertising before the start of the election campaign has always been considered legal. Nevertheless, the expert calls the applicant’s arguments weighty enough and explains this by gaps in the legislation.

The FAS department for the Ulyanovsk region initiated a case against Market-Lux LLC on the grounds of violation of the law when advertising parties were placed on billboards before the holidays. There was no information on the website of the department, the deputy of the State Duma, the first secretary of the Ulyanovsk regional committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Alexei Kurinny announced the initiation of the case. The name of the applicant is unknown, the OFAS confirmed the information about the initiation of the case, but refused to provide information about the applicant.

As indicated in the definition of the OFAS, in the statements received on April 13 and 19, it is reported that in April advertising of political parties (LDPR, KPRF, SRZP, ER) was placed on billboards. This, according to the applicant, “is a violation of Part 2 of Art. 19 of the federal law “On Advertising”, according to which “an advertising structure must be used solely for the purpose of distributing advertising, social advertising.” As recalled by the OFAS, Minutes No. 2 of the meeting of the CEC of the Russian Federation and the FAS dated August 6, 2007 states that before and during the election campaign, “information, including information about parties that does not contain signs of campaigning, is allowed to be placed on advertising structures on the terms of social advertising.” However, the advertisement in question, according to the OFAS, is of a campaigning nature, and, according to the electoral law, its placement “is possible only during the campaign period” (elections to the Ulyanovsk Legislative Assembly will be held on September 10, and visual campaigning is allowed from the moment candidates are nominated).

Kommersant’s interlocutors from the opposition parties remind that the placement of political advertising before the start of the election campaign has always been, but the FAS has not previously paid attention to this. When asked by Kommersant why cases had not been initiated before, the OFAS replied that “there were no such applications to the department before.” “But we ourselves did not initiate cases, since we are not experts in electoral legislation,” the department added.

Kommunist Kurinny fears that on the basis of the norm of the law specified in the definition of the OFAS, “they may generally prohibit the placement of political advertising on banners even during the campaign period.” Kommersant’s interlocutor, who is close to the electoral process, believes that even if the OFAS eventually finds no violations, “the statement will do its job, and the rest of the advertising distributors will be afraid to take political advertising.” And the head of the executive committee of the United Russia branch, Konstantin Dolgov, notes that there are “restrictions” in the law on advertising: “Political advertising is prohibited in plain text, the question remains, is this (information posted on billboards.— “b”) political advertising or not. The practice that we have studied shows that there are such and other positions of the courts.”

The Ulyanovsk Regional Electoral Committee previously informed Kommersant that the placement of political advertisements before the official announcement of elections is not regulated by law in any way. The chairman of the commission, Yuri Andrienko, assured Kommersant that “the position of the election commission has not changed”: “From the point of view of the election law, there is no subject of agitation here. It must be either a candidate or an electoral association. But elections have not yet been announced, and parties are not subjects of the electoral process.” At the same time, he acknowledged that the law on advertising needs to be improved and clearer definitions, especially since “there is no concept of “political advertising” in the legislation at all.”

Honorary lawyer of the Russian Federation Lyudmila Moroz considers the applicant’s arguments “quite weighty”, since the billboards “really have an election character”. In her opinion, the analysis of the legislation on advertising and elections “allows us to draw a conclusion about the gaps regarding the regulation of political advertising.” “Discussions on this issue have been going on for a long time, but things are still there,” the lawyer sums up.

Sergey Titov, Ulyanovsk