Speaker of the state Duma Vyacheslav Volodin considers promising the idea of holding presidential elections in Russia in 2018 on the third Sunday of March 18th. This date coincides with the day of signing by the President Vladimir Putin’s decree “On recognizing the Republic of Crimea” in 2014. On Tuesday, March 7, reports “Interfax”.
“It is Sunday afternoon, and this is the day, which can be assigned a vote in accordance with our legislation. And the fact that this day coincides with a remarkable anniversary that we are celebrating for several years, is very well,” said Volodin.
He also added that the package of bills to change the electoral law, which was introduced by senators Andrew Clisham and Anatoly Shirokov has already been sent to work in the profile Committee on constitutional legislation and state building.
Klishas and Shirokov submitted to the state Duma a set of amendments aimed at improving transparency of the elections of the President of Russia and the liberalization of the approach to the appointment of observers on 3 March. In particular, the senators proposed to clarify the possibility of moving the date of elections of the head of state.
Under current law, presidential elections are appointed no earlier than 100 days and no later than 90 days before election day. The will must be held on the second Sunday of March. However, as noted by parliamentarians, the calendar of the campaign might impact on March 8. So, in 2012, due to the holidays, the vote had to be on the first Sunday of the month.
According to the senators, in such cases, elections need to move a week later, and not before.
Following the Russian presidential election scheduled for March 11, 2018.
In 2014 in the Crimea held a referendum, the majority of which voted for joining the Peninsula to Russia. 17 March of the same year Vladimir Putin signed a decree recognizing Crimea’s independence, which served as the legal basis of inclusion in Russia. The agreement on joining the Peninsula in Russia, was ratified on March 18.