The State Duma plans to adopt amendments to the law on presidential elections this week

The State Duma plans to consider changes to the law on presidential elections this week, as follows from the agenda of the council of the lower house of parliament, which will be held on October 23. On the same day, the State Construction Committee will discuss amendments to the second reading before submitting them to a State Duma meeting.

Deputies plan to quickly consider the initiative in the second and third readings, one of the authors of the amendments, a member of the State Construction Committee Dmitry Vyatkin (United Russia), told Vedomosti: “It [закона] the adoption needs to be synchronized with the meetings of the Federation Council (held on Wednesdays – Vedomosti).”

Vyatkin noted that “the law will be adopted promptly and will come into force before the presidential elections are announced – there is no doubt about that.” If amendments are adopted after the announcement of elections, then their effect does not apply to the current campaign.

Presidential elections must take place on March 17, 2024. The decision to call presidential elections is made no earlier than 100 and no later than 90 days before voting day. The Federation Council must announce the appointment of elections from December 8 to 18.

The next meetings of the Federation Council will be held on October 25 and November 8. According to Vyatkin, the main goal of the amendments is to synchronize the law on basic guarantees of citizens’ voting rights and the law on presidential elections.

A bill amending the law on presidential elections was submitted to the State Duma on October 5 by a group of deputies and senators led by Chairman of the State Duma Committee on State Construction Pavel Krasheninnikov and Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation Andrei Klishas. The bill was approved in the first reading on October 17. The deadline for adoption of amendments to the second reading was October 19.

The explanatory note stated that the draft law provides for changes similar to those made to the law on basic guarantees of citizens’ electoral rights and to the law on elections of State Duma deputies.

Previously, it was impossible to be a member of commissions with the right of advisory vote within a year from the date of entry into force of the decision to impose an administrative penalty. Now you cannot be a member of commissions until the end of the period during which a person is considered subject to administrative punishment.

Only those media outlets that have an employment contract with the editorial office will be able to attend meetings of election commissions and during the counting of votes – a civil law contract will no longer provide this opportunity. Photo and video filming at polling stations should be carried out only by those who have the right to do so, so that the secrecy of voting is not violated and the confidentiality of personal data contained in voter lists is maintained. At the polling stations, places for observers and the media must be designated.

In Art. 39 (on the registration of a candidate), a rule is introduced that if a registered candidate has a criminal record, he is obliged no later than 18.00 on the day following the day the criminal record appears, to submit information about the said criminal record to the CEC (these documents can also be submitted by authorized representatives on financial matters and authorized representatives). The powers of proxies will now expire immediately after the campaign period (previously they could last until the day of the official publication of the results, and in the case of complaints filed, until the court decision came into force).

The amendment, similar to those introduced into the law on guarantees of citizens’ electoral rights, says that the regional election commission distributes allocated funds for the preparation and conduct of elections between commissions – not only from the federal budget, but also from regional budgets. The cost of one propaganda material is increasing – if it previously was no higher than 100 rubles, now it can be equal to 2% of the cost of living in Russia as a whole per capita (287 rubles at the moment). Funds for the activities of election commissions are transferred to accounts in Sberbank, and if there are no branches in the region, then to accounts in Promsvyazbank (this applies primarily to new regions).

Members of election commissions with voting rights may receive additional wages for work in election commissions; the amount of payments will be established by the regional commission.

According to the current law, a certain number of ballots are sent to each precinct. Their number is regulated – ballots must be transferred to the PEC for at least 70% of voters associated with the commission, but with a small margin: it must be at least two ballots, but no more than 0.5% of the number of voters at the polling station.

Now, an exception is made for remote electronic voting – if it is carried out, the number of ballots transferred to the commission is determined by the decision of the regional election commission.

Now, also in exceptional cases, in polling stations in hard-to-reach areas, on ships or polar stations, the PEC itself can prepare ballot papers, but for this there must be paper with watermarks, microfont or a protective grid – now such protection may not be used.

The bill adopted in the first reading is indeed still synchronizing the law on presidential elections with the law on guarantees of citizens’ electoral rights, says electoral expert Stanislav Andreychuk: “But usually it is in the second reading that the most important amendments appear, which will immediately be adopted in the third reading.”

Electoral lawyer Oleg Zakharov also agrees that the bill repeats the amendments that were made to the law on guarantees of citizens’ electoral rights: “Of what was expected, whether there will be one or not, only funding for federal elections from regional and local budgets.” Another innovation, the development of which would be logical to see in the autumn amendments, is the right to finance federal elections from regional and local budgets. For the first time, such an option was tested when voting for amendments to the Constitution in 2020, and that provision was temporary, he notes.

In 2023, in a number of regions, an updated format for the work of precinct commissions was tested in pilot mode – door-to-door visits to inform about elections, says Zakharov: “We can assume that as a result of this experiment, such a norm will appear in the law on presidential elections. So far, the law only contains a general possibility of such financing, but for it to work, the amendment must appear in the law on the relevant elections.”

Many resource regions will certainly be happy with this option, which will help them intensify the fight for the electoral result within the borders of their constituent entity in federal elections and encourage the PECs to have a larger turnout, Zakharov believes.