MOSCOW, January 11 (Itar-Tass) —— The proposal of the CPRF to change the procedure of forming election commissions is aimed to undermine confidence in the existing election system, holds Sergei Neverov, the deputy speaker of the State Duma lower house of parliament and secretary of the presidium of the General Council of the United Russia Party. He commented in this way on the statement of the leader of the Communist Party, Gennady Zyuganov, that election commissions at every level should be formed by political parties on a parity basis.
“The present election law fully protects the rights of all parliamentary parties to participate in election commissions at every level,” Neverov stressed. How the parities use their rights “is a question to be put to their leaders,” he said.
Reproaching Zyuganov for being not knowledgeable of the election law, Neverov recalled that in accordance with Point 1, Article 22, Chapter 4 of the law on the basic guarantees of election rights of citizens of the Russian Federation and their right to participate in referendums, election commissions of regions of the Russian Federation, election commissions of municipal entities, district and territorial election commissions, as well as commissions at polling stations are formed on the basis of proposals of political parties that nominated lists of candidates and will distribute deputies’ mandates in the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of Russia.
“In the run up to any election the Communists are used to say that somebody bar somebody else from joining election commissions. The sole purpose of these statements is to undermine confidence of people in the possibility of fair and transparent elections, and, consequently, in the elected authorities,” said the representative of the leadership of the United Russia Party.
Zyuganov said earlier on Wednesday that the Communists had drafted and would shortly refer to the Duma 12 bills to “repair” the election system so that by the presidential election in March all the commissions at every level should be formed by political parties on a parity basis.