MOSCOW, August 8. /TASS/. Russia’s Central Election Commission has found legitimate the wordings of questions three initiative groups created by Ilya Sviridov, of the A Just Russia party, public activists in the Moscow Region and the Communist Party in the Altai Region have proposed for a national referendum against the idea of raising the pension age. The CEC made the decisions at its meeting on Wednesday.
The initiative group under Sviridov, the head of the Tagansky municipal district and candidate for the mayor of Moscow, formulated the question in the following way: "Are you for not changing the age established by Russian pension legislation as at July 1, 2018 when the right to old age pension comes into effect?"
The question proposed in the Moscow Region by a group of activists led by the president of the all-Russia union of NGO’s for the affairs of large families, Marina Semyonova, is as follows: "Do you support the idea the age established by Russian pension legislation as at July 1, 2018 when the right to old age pension comes into effect cannot be raised?
And the pension referendum question proposed by the Communist Party in the Altai Region reads: "Do you agree that the age established by Russian pension legislation as at July 1, 2018 that gives the right to insurance old age pension (60 years for men and 55 years for women) must not be raised?"
Semyonova told the media her organization did not cooperate with any political forces and in its preparations for the referendum counts on financial support from active citizens.
"For the time being none of the politicians has contacted us. We are absolutely apolitical. We will begin to hold meetings in the regions where we will see active response," she said. The public activists have no intention to pool efforts with other initiators of the referendum against raising the retirement age.
"We would not like to arrange for a PR campaign ahead of the elections for anybody," she added.
CEC chief Ella Pamfilova wished success to all initiators of the referendum.
"There must be genuine, real competition. You have the right to convert most regions to your faith," she said, adding that there was a possibility to join forces.
"The Central Election Commission believes that our citizens have the constitutional right to express their opinion of what the pension system in the country should be like," Pamfilova said. "For this reason the CEC for the first time in nearly 25 years approved of several questions proposed for the referendum. Now it is up to the initiative groups to collect documents."
CEC Secretary Maya Grishina told the media that all initiators must now register similar groups in another 42 regions. After that the CEC is to register a federal initiative group for the referendum consisting of delegates representing regional groups. Then the initiators of the plebiscite will have to collect two million signatures in support of the referendum. It can be called only after that.
Last time Russia held a referendum in 1993.