Ruslan Gattarov spoke on novelties in the Russian election law

The theme of his presentation was Novelties in the Russian Election Law. His overarching idea was that the election law must set out a kind of practical mechanism that would fully reflect the free will of the body politic as to the performance of the government and practical governance.

National and international life is in a permanent flux. So is the election law. Recently, Russian election law showed good dynamism. To quote a few examples:

• Lower political party registration threshold
• 5% entry threshold effective as of October last
• Direct elections of regional Governors effective as of May last
• More transparent FC as a result
• 75% election quota for regional legislatives on a majority basis effective as of 2 November

Ruslan Gattarov supported the proposal by the FC Speaker Valentina Matvienko to reintroduce the “against all” checkbox in the matrix of ballots as an expression of a constitutional right to vote to the electorate without particular preferences.

Realities show that the electoral system tracks the progress of the civil society in Russia and its political wishlists.