Lawbill on specifics of elections in new regions submitted to Russian parliament
Russian parliament members have proposed a lawbill which empowers the new regions to customize their first elections.
Under the document published in the State Duma lower house of the Russian parliament database, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and Zaporozhye and Kherson regions can set up voting stations outside their regions where their voters enjoy active suffrage.
The procedure for setting up the above voting stations, arranging the voting, vote count and drawing of voting results protocols is determined by Russia’s Central Election Commission.
In their first elections to government bodies, the new regions which acceded to Russia can specify the implementation of certain provisions of the election law. In this case, the CEC conducts an expert examination of proposed law or legal act.
The lawbill addresses the observance of voting rights of people in detention facilities. It also says that the Public Chambers have the right to appoint observers to monitor the election. The document has a provision for absentee certificates, but they are only used in a just a few regions due to the spreading of the mobile voting system, said the explanatory note.
The authors of the proposed law are chairpersons of the State Duma and Federation Council committees on legislation Pavel Krasheninnikov and Andrey Klishas, and a number of deputies from the Liberal Democratic Party and New People factions.
CEC chairperson Ella Pamfilova earlier said that the CEC had been making scheduled preparations for elections on the single voting day on September 10.
On January 19, the LPR parliament approved the law on election/referendum commissions in the Republic. LPR Acting Head Leonid Pasechnik said that the document provided for remote e-voting.
The Lugansk People’s Republic, Donetsk People’s Republic and Zaporozhye and Kherson regions acceded to Russia on September 30, 2022 following the unification referenda.*i*v