MOSCOW, October 31 (Itar-Tass) — Russia’s Central Elections Commission supports the idea to reduce terms of election campaigns.
The Commission is already preparing for possible changes to the legislation, the Central Elections Commission’s Secretary Nikolai Konkin told reporters on Wednesday.
“The Central Elections Commission may not be an initiator, but now we are considering different variants of cutting terms of election campaigns,” he said referring to suggestions from the State Duma’s head of the committee on media Alexei Mitrofanov. “Legislative initiatives, referring to electoral legislation, are not fading, and we should be prepared for new variants of actions.”
If the changes to the legislation are adopted, they should come into force before a new election campaign, he said. “Formally, it is due in June, but it may be postponed,” Konkin continued. “In this case, it /the campaign/ will be due in mid-summer, which would mean different conditions.”
Konkin said that currently Russia has one of most long-term election campaigns: local electoral commissions start working 30 days before the voting day. “The terms we have are very long, and they mean allocation of venues and payments to the staff; while we should mind the money,” he said. “The question of discussing terms of election campaigns is quite discussable,” he added.
Earlier, Russia adopted a law which introduced one /instead of two – in March and in October/ day for voting – on the second Sunday in September. First elections under new rules are due on September 8, 2013. Meanwhile, some politicians criticised the appointment of a day in September explaining it will difficulties in agitation during the season of summer holidays.