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Kommersant
Yesterday the state Duma adopted in the third reading amendments proposed to the presidential elections. Another legislative revision of the rules of the game will require other solutions. The increase in working lives of the employees of precinct election commissions from 20 to 30 days may incur and additional funding for the presidential election, said the source “Kommersant” in the Central electoral Commission (CEC). The office may require up to 2 billion roubles, says the source “b”. A significant part of the election budget electoral commissions (IR) in Russia goes exactly to pay nearly a million employees of precinct IR.
Yesterday the state Duma adopted in the third reading amendments to laws “On presidential elections” and “On basic guarantees of electoral rights and the right to participate in referendum of citizens of the Russian Federation”. For presidential elections they allow to increase the number of polling stations and simplifying the procedure for the appointment of observers at the presidential elections, and partially cancel absentee ballots for all elections (see “Kommersant” on March 4). There is an opportunity to choose any polling station, not the one on whose territory the registered voter. It is “essentially abolishes serfdom in the electoral process”, said yesterday at a meeting of the state Duma head of Committee on state building Pavel Krasheninnikov (United Russia). He assured colleagues that all the amendments “aimed at openness, transparency and orderliness of the electoral process.”
Member of the Committee on state building from the liberal democratic party Sergei Ivanov saw a “dangerous precedent” that “before, all the rules prescribed by law”, and now everything is “at the mercy of the Central election Commission and here are the instructions, and we handed out” (it will be described the procedure of voting not at the place of residence).
“Here is the statement of the CEC may change in 15 minutes. And on the basis of this statement, the voting procedure will be different,” said Mr. Ivanov. Due to the fact that members “agree that such laws”, the citizens of bad attitude to the Duma-is show surveys, said Mr. Ivanov. However, in the end the Deputy “encouraged all to support this bill”. But the Deputy of the Communist party Yuri sinelschikov said that the faction would vote against, since the “efforts” of the Communists for their further development “was ignored”. Against 38 votes (of the Communist party faction of 42 deputies).
The amendments may affect the funding of the presidential campaign. Earlier, district election commissions at the regional elections started to work ten days before a vote. This term arises, for example, from clause 13 of article 17 of the law “On basic guarantees…” in which the voter lists are transferred from the territorial to the district IR IR “not later than ten days before the voting day”. In the presidential election of the PEC began to work 20 days before the voting, because in this period the staff of the PEC begin informing voters about the election. As explained “Kommersant” the Secretary of the CEC, Maya Grishina, the law “nowhere is there direct indication of when members of the commissions start to work” that needs to be paid. This is calculated “based on the timing of a specific electoral action.”
The adopted amendments establish a new deadline: the law “On presidential elections” employees of the PEC will begin informing voters 30 days before a vote. Kommersant’s sources in the electoral system attribute the increase in terms of the work of PEC members with the need to ensure a large turnout. The corresponding amendments to the law “On basic guarantees…” are made. As explained “Kommersant” in the state Duma, their adoption would mean that the changes have affected elections at all levels and resulted in spending of regional budgets on additional remuneration of PEC members — it can afford not all subjects of the Russian Federation. Money for a presidential campaign are laid in the Federal budget. The interlocutor of “Kommersant” in the state Duma said that additional funds CEC do not need — they will appear due to the redistribution of existing money.
The CEC emphasize that the funds for the extension of the work of members of election commissions is still needed. At the election of the President in the budget has already allocated about 14.8 billion rubles, said the source “b” in the CEC, of which only 11 billion pledged for the first round, but to reallocate funds for new purposes not envisaged. So by the end of the year, the Department may require additional funds. According to the calculations of source “b”, it is not more than about 2 billion rubles.
“This rule (the work of the PEC.– “B”) will work for us for the presidential campaign of March 2018, – said “Kommersant” the Deputy Chairman of the CEC Nikolai Bulaev.– Our offers for March 2018 exist, they have been given and we hope that will be considered in accordance with the law on presidential elections of the Russian Federation, funds will come into the account, and we’ll complete the election commissions of subjects”. “The specific figures we cannot talk unknown, for example, what inflation will be in a presidential election year. We will calculate the additional costs until August-September”, – said “Kommersant” the head of electoral Committee of Leningrad region Mikhail Lebedinsky.
For Federal elections, the CEC makes a decision on the size and procedure of payment of compensations for the work of members of election commissions. Before the state Duma elections of 2016, the CEC determined the employee’s compensation Commission in Moscow at 64.3 thousand RUB over the full month, and in Karelia-30.3 thousand RUB Order will not vary greatly, said Maya Grishina, and the size will be formed based on the estimates of the elections. On the eve of elections to the state Duma the Central election Commission was the complexity of financing. In the middle of June 2016, the Commission appealed to the President with a request to allocate additional funds for the elections (see “Kommersant” on 16 June 2016). The last part of the CEC, headed by Vladimir Churov at least 2015 debated with the Ministry of Finance about the Finance required for the conduct of elections. The CEC asked for 14.7 billion but was allocated only 10.4 billion roubles of Additional funds requested and the new leadership of the CEC, the application was approved. The CEC noted that funds are needed primarily for the salaries of employees of the PEC (about 960 million).