New procedure for State Duma elections aimed at renewing Russian political elite
MOSCOW. March 1 (Interfax) - The new version of the bill on the elections of the State Duma deputies will revive political life in Russia, political analysts said.
The new version was triggered by several reasons, political analyst Sergei Markov said.
"First of all, the necessity to renew the political elite, governors and mayors has arisen. Besides, regions have a number of political activists the population supports. And where will the new governors come from? They will come from the majority candidates. And the society wants majority candidates," Markov said.
Markov said that the bill needed an amendment to shield majority candidates from criminals.
"Criminals can hardly go through the party list elections. We remember how they tried to influence the majority candidates. So we have to put a shield to protect such candidates from criminals. For example, information of conflict of interest this or that candidate has with the law could be announced, and law enforcement could be allowed to reveal information on those candidates, who may not have committed crimes but may have been investigated. All this could be approved as an amendment to the bill," Markov said.
Another political analyst, Igor Bunin, said that political life in Russia would liven up considerably when the bill was passed.
"As a result, a lot of individual single mandate candidates will appear - representatives of small parties and strong candidates with an alternative point of view. All this will make the political life more vivid and interesting. While United Russia will have more difficulty passing unpopular laws using its majority," Bunin said.
Head of the Center for Political Conjuncture, Andrei Chesnakov, told Interfax by phone that "the bill proposed by the Russian president completes absolutely logically the sequence of changes to liberalize the legislative system of the country. The transition to the mixed election system is logical after the procedure to register a party and to form a multi-party system has been simplified."