MOSCOW, October 24 State Duma at a plenary session on Tuesday adopted in the second reading a bill to clarify the provisions of the law “On the elections of the President of the Russian Federation”.
The deputies also approved amendments to the bill, including that the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation may establish the specifics of the preparation and conduct of elections during the period of martial law in part of the territory of the Russian Federation with the possibility of postponing such a vote by decision of the Central Election Commission, if the preparation and conduct of elections may represent threat to the life and health of citizens. In addition, at polling stations established outside the territory of the Russian Federation, the start and end time of voting and its duration may be changed by decision of the head of the diplomatic mission or consular office of the Russian Federation, if voting may pose a threat to the life and health of citizens of the Russian Federation. In this case, the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Central Election Commission are immediately informed.
The bill was introduced by the heads of the State Duma and Federation Council committees on state building Pavel Krasheninnikov and Andrei Klishas.
Earlier, Krasheninnikov reported the need to clarify a number of legislative norms, taking into account the timing of the presidential elections. When introducing the document, he noted that the bill was of a legal and technical nature, which did not provide for any radical changes in the electoral legislation. The bill clarifies the provisions of the election law and brings them into line with previously introduced changes to federal laws; the proposed changes are not novelties, they repeat previously introduced changes to the laws on guarantees of electoral rights and a number of others, the parliamentarian also said.
According to the idea of the authors of the initiative, it is envisaged to clarify the provisions regarding the implementation of photo and video recording at polling stations. Thus, it can only be carried out by persons who have the right to do so in accordance with the law, excluding violation of the secrecy of voting and control over the expression of the will of voters, and it is also mandatory to maintain the confidentiality of personal data contained in voter lists and other documents.
In addition, it is enshrined the rule that if a registered candidate has a criminal record, an obligation is introduced to submit information about the criminal record in writing to the election commission that registered him. The bill also establishes the specifics of opening and using accounts opened for election commissions, regulates the issues of remuneration for members of election commissions, and also establishes the possibility of co-financing from the budget of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation, the local budget of the preparation and conduct of presidential elections in the Russian Federation.
It is also proposed to establish a maximum cost for the production of campaign materials materials in the amount of 2% of the subsistence level per capita in Russia per unit of production, while in the current version such a limit is 100 rubles; in addition, only media representatives working in editorial offices on the basis of labor can be accredited at meetings of election commissions contract.