Vacation at your own expense – Newspaper Kommersant No. 53 (7498) dated 03/29/2023
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The Central Election Commission (CEC) of the Russian Federation on Wednesday will consider the issue of replacing the chairman of the electoral committee of the Kirov region. At the end of last week, the former head of the commission, Maxim Finchenko, was stripped of his access to state secrets, and then, by decision of the election commission, was removed from his post due to his visit to a NATO member country. According to the official himself, we are talking about Turkey, where he rested last summer. Mr. Finchenko assures that he warned the regional authorities about the trip, but the notice “was lost”; He intends to challenge his dismissal in court.
On March 29, the CEC of the Russian Federation will consider the issues of submitting a proposal to the head of the Kirov region on the early termination of the powers of a member of the regional election commission and on proposing another candidate for this post. This follows from the agenda of the meeting, published on March 28 on the CEC website. We are talking about replacing Maxim Finchenko, who was appointed to the regional election commission under the CEC quota and headed the commission, but on March 24 was removed from office by a decision of the majority of its members. The day before, Mr. Finchenko was excluded from the list of officials admitted to state secrets.
Maxim Finchenko told Kommersant that Vice Governor Andrei Luchinin proposed to the regional election commission to vote for his removal. For the head of the commission, this came as a surprise, since the solution of such an issue, in his opinion, is generally “not procedurally provided for” by the current legislation. “The violations that were charged as grounds for removal will be challenged by me in court, this concerns leaving for a NATO country,” the official explained.
He also said that in August last year he went on vacation to Turkey, about which he notified the acting head of the region (Governor Alexander Sokolov was not in Kirov at that moment), but Mr. Finchenko does not remember who exactly. “The agreement given by and. O. Governor dated August 18, 2022, I went on vacation in September,” Mr. Finchenko said, assuring that the approval for the trip had been obtained “properly.” “I was preparing to appeal the decision, I asked the governor for documents substantiating such a decision, but I was refused to provide them. The relevance of the appeal against the deprivation of my admission form will also be challenged by me in court. The procedural decision is not provided for in the law, my arguments and proposal to substantiate and study the issue and give me the opportunity to explain were ignored, ”the official said.
According to Alexander Efremov, a member of the regional election commission from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, he considers the decision of the commission illegal and has already sent a corresponding complaint to the CEC. In particular, it contains a demand to “verify information about the vice-governor Andrey Luchinin, who allegedly destabilized the work of the election commission,” the communist added. Mr. Efremov himself was not present at the voting, since at that time he was in the Central Election Commission.
According to the Newsler.ru portal, Galina Burkova, who holds the position of Commissioner for Human Rights in the Kirov Region, and before that for 12 years (from 2006 to 2018) was a member of the regional election commission, may become a candidate for the vacant post. Maxim Finchenko told Kommersant that he did not understand why the choice fell on her, but did not exclude that the decision to remove him was a political issue and “the main thing was to remove me.”
CEC member Yevgeny Shevchenko, who oversees interaction with the Kirov region in the commission, told Kommersant that the procedure for early termination of the powers of the chairman of the regional election commission, as defined in the legislation, was observed: 10 members of the commission voted for the resignation of Maxim Finchenko out of 12 present (there are 14 members in the election commission voting rights), the ballot was by secret ballot. “Having access to state secrets and receiving an additional payment from the budget for this, he did not agree on a vacation in the prescribed manner,” the CEC member explained. According to Mr. Shevchenko, Mr. Finchenko’s vacation in one of the NATO countries is just one of the claims against his work.
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