The deputies decided to pass a number of extremely interesting “innovations”.
The State Duma of United Russia has prepared the next amendments to Russian electoral legislation. Hiding behind the need to organize elections in the territories liberated during the NOM, the parliamentarians decided to pass a certain number of extremely interesting “innovations”.
The amendments will completely abolish all normal monitoring of what happens in polling stations. By the will of the governors, opposition candidates may be prohibited from collecting small donations for the campaign, and additional electoral lists, thanks to which many members of United Russia “won” in local elections, will be transferred to an electronic form not controlled by the opposition.
The Vedomosti newspaper spoke about the amendments prepared in the State Duma to the electoral legislation. Changers are actively pushing election-related changes into new territories. As you know, martial law has been in effect there since the fall of last year, under which, by today’s standards, it is simply impossible to hold an election. This ban is lifted, but with a large number of important reservations: the voting procedure can be officially launched by the governor of one of the new territories by contacting the Central Election Commission. And there, after consultation with the Ministry of Defense and the FSB, they must authorize or prohibit the vote within five days. Campaigns under martial law may be suspended, their timing and other important circumstances may be changed. But nevertheless, even such elections can allow local residents to finally elect a new government.
Photo: Russian Central Election Commission However, under the veil of these brilliant innovations, there are gray and discreet amendments that will change the elections throughout the country, and not only in the liberated regions. And these changes, of course, will be in the hands of the candidates for power. There are three such reforms in total.
Normal observers disappear
The amendments, if passed, will destroy the latest methods of mass and sudden delivery of observers to polling stations for falsifiers. To do this, the deputies plan to “castrate” the rights of the agents of the candidates and the parties. Now, those officially declared as proxies have the right to do almost everything: from checking the documents of any electoral commission to overseeing the vote count. MEPs propose removing all rights to these proxies completely ‘after the end of the campaign period’, i.e. the day of silence before, in effect, the day of the vote. Trustees can now criss-cross sites and rustle not just in one spot, but across the entire area. The deputies will leave them only a puppet role – agitators and prompters during the debates.
The second category under the knife is that of media representatives. Opposition candidates often found friendly publications that issued dozens, if not hundreds, of their ID cards to their observers. Journalists, by law, have the right to observe the entire electoral process – right down to the counting of the votes and the sealing of the ballot boxes. If the amendments are adopted, only media representatives who have employment contracts with the editorial staff will be able to do so. This means that editorial boards pay them salaries, as well as tax deductions and miscellaneous fees, to all possible funds. Not a single candidate and not a single editorial office will save such an amount of money and lawyers to competently first hire and after the election fire hundreds of “journalists”-observers.
Photo: Russian Central Election Commission Previously, the State Duma had already removed from the laws the possibility of appointing members of election commissions with the right to an advisory vote, who also worked as observers of the opposition. And the official observers themselves were pushed into “reservation”: their lists must be provided to the electoral commissions in advance, and it is almost impossible to change these people already in the electoral process. Full control of organizers. In turn, almost completely out of the control of “outsiders”.
Suffocation of “people’s” candidates
Secondly, the authors of the amendments propose to give the governors (formally, the legislative assemblies of the regions under their control) the right to introduce a minimum threshold for the amount of donations, which cannot exceed 3% of the established amount of the election fund. Underneath such ornate wording lurks the possibility of a ban on fundraising for “people’s candidates.”
In recent years, opposition candidates have often (and very successfully) contested elections, raising money for their funds by literally turning to ordinary people. Which, out of sympathy for the candidate or a desire to prevent the victory of another party of United Russia, threw 200-300 rubles at the opponent. And so they filled his election fund. Now the road to a normal campaign, which, no matter what, costs money, for such people – students, scientists, doctors, teachers – United Russia of regional administrations and thoughts can completely block. As soon as they sense the danger and see such nominees “from below” appear.
First of all, it will be a blow to local elections, especially in big cities. Activists often go to the polls there to advocate reforms in certain swaths of local life, such as housing and communal services and landscaping, and they are opposed by government candidates, who fill their coffers with a “stream” of money from organizations controlled by them. The second victims – also in small elections – are the candidates of the Communist Party, who will have to do without the small contributions of their comrades in arms.
Communist Party rally. Photo: wikimedia.org The ways to circumvent this rule are already clear. For example, collecting donations for an outside organization, from where they will already go to the candidate’s fund in a large “package”, and not one by one. But how many people will agree to give to the elections the candidate they like not to his fund, but to some “Horns and Hooves”, whose representatives of the candidate with the authorities will surely speak to the citizens?
Schrödinger voters
Finally, the third important change is the appearance of “electronic lists” of voters, where it will be possible to add newly appeared citizens who suddenly want to vote. It is one of the most popular and oldest schemes to achieve the “desired” result for many government candidates. Now it works something like this: Before Election Day, the “verified” Precinct Election Commission receives additional lists of voters who are “unregistered”, “moved”, or simply working near that polling station. From each of them, the “correct” members of the commissions draw up a request for a vote, as well as a whole stack of papers. Theoretically (and not only) in all these documents, a competent and attentive observer or candidate of the opposition can easily find a trap. And cause a huge scandal with the upheaval of the whole system and the threat of defeat of the “resource” candidate.
From now on, the life of these candidates will become much easier. “Additional” lists of voters will be established electronically and certified by the electronic signatures of the president and the secretary of the constituency electoral commission. Where did they come from, on what basis did they appear and why did these people vote, it will simply be impossible to really verify – the opposition has no tools for this.
Photo: CEC of Russia The winners will be candidates who own factories and steamships, who can “drive” their workers to the right place so that they vote exactly where the authorities need them. Opponents can at least shout that a fake is happening before their eyes: formally, everything will be legal.
Despite all the restrictions and the whole system of electoral fraud built in many regions, United Russia seems to continue to be afraid of its voters. And they come up with new ways to minimize the possibility of their defeat.
Author: Nikolai Troinin
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