Federalism and Local Politics in Russia

300 Cameron Rossdominated by members of United Russia. Thus, as the former Chair of theCentral Election Commission, Ivanenko, observed in 2005,in our country the electoral commissions themselves are entirely withinthe complement of the system of executive power. In the Soviet period,there were also elections, people came to the polls, took ballots andmarched along a clear straight line, without deviating to the right or left.And we are returning to this now. 62In July 2005 the maximum number of state officials and members of politicalparties that were permitted to serve in electoral commissions was increasedfrom one-third to one-half. 63 Only those parties which have party list seats inthe State Duma are permitted to nominate members for posts in regionaland local electoral commissions. In the elections to rural and city settlementsin 2004-5, 25 per cent of the voting members of municipal electoral commissionswere members of political parties and this figure rose to 42 per cent inthe electoral commissions of municipal districts and city okrugs. 64 Members ofUnited Russia had the largest number of representatives, comprising 40.3 percent (of the total number of party members) in rural and city settlementscommissions; members of the CPRF were second (with 25 per cent) LDPR (14per cent), Rodina (3.7 per cent). Yabloko and SPS both had approximately 3per cent. 65 It should also be stressed that the electoral commissions also have asizeable number of members who come from posts in the state administration,many of whom will have no choice but to support United Russia.On 27 July 2006 the Duma adopted a new ‘Law on Combating ExtremistActivity’ which gives the government new powers to ban parties from electionsif any of their members are charged with extremist activities. EvenAleksandr Veshnyakov, who at the time was the Chair of the CentralElectoral Commission, spoke out against this Law. In an interview conductedin the summer of 2006, he warned, ‘I will mention that attempts arenow being made to modify legislation in order to get more ways to cut outdisliked candidates using administrative resources’, and furthermore,What frightens me is that if these amendments are adopted, we will haveelections without choice, as it was in fact in Soviet times … It is simply adifferent ideology of elections where everything must be regulated and inthat way no candidate the government does not like will be permitted toparticipate in an election. It resembles Soviet times. 66Veshnyakov also spoke openly of ‘several cases in which local or regionalelection officials in the Russian Federation falsified results, only to receivesmall fines or have criminal investigations closed without prosecution orconviction’, and he went on to argue that, ‘inappropriate light punishmentsdiscredit the authorities and give the opposition serious arguments for discreditingelections in Russia’. He concluded by calling on ‘prosecutors and