In the State Duma, changes were made to the procedure for holding elections in areas where martial law was declared. The newspaper writes that such an initiative was presented to the lower house of parliament by deputies Pavel Krasheninnikov and Dmitry Vyatkin, as well as Senator Andrei Klishas. “Kommersant”.
The changes are connected with contradictions in federal laws on martial law and the admission of four new subjects to the Russian Federation. According to the first document, referendums and elections for state authorities and local self-government bodies cannot be held during martial law. According to the latter, the first Russian parliamentary elections in the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, under martial law since October 20, 2022, should be held on the second Sunday of September 2023.
As Pavel Krasheninnikov, chairman of the State Duma Committee on State Building and Legislation, explained to the publication, it would be possible to keep it from a legal point of view, while the parliamentarians decided to eliminate precisely the contradiction between the two laws by introducing amendments. elections in new regions without it.
According to the amendments, the head of the region under martial law has the right to send proposals to the CEC for holding elections, which in turn consults with the Ministry of Defense and the FSB, then rejects the proposal of the governor or, if necessary, calls elections that can pass “with a reduction in the timing of electoral actions”. The CEC also has the right to postpone the elections and restart them if the conditions that caused the postponement of the elections no longer exist.
According to experts, such changes give the authorities the opportunity to decide both to hold elections and to ban them. It is also assumed that the September elections may not be held on all four new issues and will be delayed in some regions.
Former Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Igor Krasnov instructed to ensure the rule of law, transparency and security in the elections to be held in four new regions of the country in September this year.