Verified by referendums – Newspaper Kommersant No. 29 (7474) dated February 16, 2023
[ad_1]
The Central Election Commission (CEC) on Wednesday recommended two members each to the first election commissions of four new regions – the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), as well as Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. Among the eight candidates are the heads of all four election commissions that organized referendums on joining the Russian Federation, and three more of their current members. There is only one “non-local” candidate: Sergei Vysotin, a member of the Crimean electoral committee, has been recommended to the Kherson commission. The Crimean government explained to Kommersant that this appointment is primarily due to Mr. Vysotin’s extensive experience in building a new electoral system.
Recall that the regulations on the formation of the first election commissions in the new constituent entities of the Russian Federation were published in January 2023. Now the acceptance of candidates from political parties and public organizations continues, the commissions should be formed in March. In the DPR and LPR, the election commissions will consist of 12 people: six members each from the acting heads of the republics and from the people’s councils (parliaments). In the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, where there are no legislative bodies yet, half of the 10 members of the commissions will be appointed as acting governors, and the other half by the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation.
In addition, according to the electoral legislation, when forming regional commissions, the head of the region and the legislature are required to appoint to the election commission one candidate recommended by the CEC. As a rule, it is these appointees who later occupy leadership positions in the commissions. It was precisely this right that the CEC exercised at its meeting on February 15.
Member of the electoral committee of the DPR The Central Election Commission recommended the inclusion of its current chairman, Vladimir Vysotsky, and the head of the department for working with voter lists, Anna Naidenko. Mr. Vysotsky has been working in the electoral system since 2007, since 2016 he has been a member of the CEC of the DPR, and in 2019 he headed the commission. Ms. Naydenko has been working at the DPR election committee since 2022.
In the electoral committee of the LPR it was proposed to appoint its current chairman, Elena Kravchenko, and her deputy, Marianna Skornyakova. Ms. Kravchenko was a deputy of the People’s Council of the LPR, then she participated in organizing the elections of the head of the republic and deputies of the People’s Council, and in 2018 she was elected chairman of the CEC of the LPR. Ms. Skornyakova has been working in the office of the CEC of the LPR since 2018, including as its head, since 2020 she has been a member of the election committee, and in 2022 she was elected deputy chairman of the commission.
In the electoral committee of the Zaporozhye region its current chairman Galina Katyushchenko and secretary of the commission Elena Sivenkova were recommended. Both have experience in working in political parties, and in the summer of 2022, when the Zaporozhye referendum commission was formed, they joined it.
Finally, Kherson region became the only one of the four regions where one of the two proposed candidates is “non-local”. In addition to the current head of the commission, Marina Zakharova, the CEC recommended a member of the Crimean electoral committee, Sergei Vysotin. Prior to the formation of the referendum commission in the summer of 2022, Ms. Zakharova worked in the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy of the DPR and in the administration of the head of the DPR, and was also the director of the department of domestic and foreign policy of the Kherson region. Mr. Vysotin has been working in the electoral system since 2014, is a member of the Crimean Electoral Committee and at the same time holds the position of Deputy Head of the Organizational Department – Head of the Department for Supporting the Electoral Process of the Commission Staff.
During the presentation of the candidates, the CEC chairman Ella Pamfilova especially thanked the head of the electoral committee of Crimea, Mikhail Malyshev, for the candidacy of Sergei Vysotin, who, according to her, has to be “torn from the heart.”
As a source in the Crimean government explained to Kommersant, the appointment of Mr. Vysotin to the Kherson region is primarily due to the experience that he gained while working on the peninsula in building a new electoral system. In general, the interlocutor notes, Crimea actively shares its experience and participates in the life of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions at all levels, starting with the tacit supervision by the head of the republic, Sergei Aksyonov, and ending with the delegation of specialists in all major areas.
According to Ms. Pamfilova, all candidates considered at the meeting on February 15 “tested by deeds and time.” All of them took part in organizing referendums on joining Russia, which lasted for five days – from September 23 to September 27, 2022. Voting was also organized in the regions of Russia – for citizens who temporarily left the annexed territories. As a result, according to official data, more than 95% of the voting participants supported joining Russia in all four regions, and the highest percentage of support was recorded in the DPR (98.69%). The final turnout was also quite high: 92.6% in the LPR, 97.51% in the DPR, 76.86% in the Kherson region, and 85.4% in the Zaporozhye region. In the first four days of the referendum in all new regions, voting took place at home for the safety of voters, polling stations were open only on the last day.
The leadership of the election commissions will be determined after they are fully formed, but at a meeting on Wednesday, Ella Pamfilova made it clear that the Central Election Commission would recommend new subjects as chairmen of all four current heads of the commissions.
[ad_2]
Source link
