Medvedev calls for simpler party registration procedures
MOSCOW. Dec 22 (Interfax) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has called for introducing a simpler procedure for registering political parties.
"Here is my proposal: [a party can apply for registration] with an application by 500 people representing at least 50% of the country's regions," Medvedev said in an annual address to the Federal Assembly on Thursday.
He also called for repealing the obligation to collect voter signatures to run for the State Duma and regional legislative assemblies.
"Finally, to reduce the number of voter signatures necessary to run for president to 300,000 and for candidates from non-parliamentary parties to 100,000," he said.
The current law stipulates that, to be officially registered, a party must number at least 45,000 members in more than half of Russia's regions.
Before 2001, there was no minimum threshold of party members, and in 2006 this figure was set at 10,000.
Not a single political party has been registered in Russia over the past three years. Since the early 2000s, the number of officially registered parties in Russia has dropped to seven from several dozen.
A self-nominating presidential candidate must collect at least 2 million voter signatures to be registered. The same rule applies to candidates from political parties not represented in the State Duma. Each region of Russia can account for not more than 50,000 voter signatures.