AKRAM MURTAZAEV, MOSCOW
LAME DUCK A LA RUSSE
The recently proposed amendments to the Russian Federal Law on basic guarantees of electoral rights threaten to lock up the vox populi into one throat. And you know whose.
The democratic wing of the United Russia party keeps on rectifying the Law on elections. Earlier they insisted on disfranchising everyone who would boycott elections. Recently they have come forward with a new proposal – they have submitted to the State Duma a bill eliminating voter turnout threshold. If adopted, the bill will make it potentially possible for Vladimir Putin to name his successor, give his presidential vote for his candidate and that will be it – the Central Electoral Commission will have the expression of will of the Russian citizens.
And though this scenario is a mere assumption and is unlikely to be implemented in all its grotesque deformity, it perfectly discloses the logic underpinning the legislative initiative – if we love our president and are ready to do anything only to leave him in office for the third term, we will live up to these new rules. At least this new “democratic achievement” will cost Russian citizens no big trouble on the polling day. All the more that there will be little sense in coming to the polling place at all – the amendments stipulate that any candidate accused (i.e. allegedly accused) of extremism should be kicked out of ballots. Evidently, this can be done to any candidate not approved by the party in power.
The new president elected on the basis of this quasi-electoral system will be legitimate enough and at the same time will be liable personally to Putin, who will be his electorate. So in 2012 or even earlier the successor will be relieved of his post without any trouble…
Naturally, liability of the Putin’s successor is an issue the elites are concerned about – things happen, you know... The authorities need firm guarantees, and some speculate that the most attached to the president advisers had an idea to temporarily delegate the power to an elderly politician (Yury Luzhkov, for instance), who will not be able to run for the second presidential term because of his age. Frankly speaking, this is the most effective method of bringing Putin back in the Kremlin. But this option is more about political jockeying and foul play, while designing the outcome of elections through “improving” the legislation seems to be a more reserved but at the same time far-reaching option.
The “one president, one vote” principle seems to be an anachronism in a democratic society. But this is what the new amendments to the electoral legislation do with Russia’s political life – return it back to those times when continuity of power was absolute and the state leader was elected by the Kremlin inner circle. Elimination of voter turnout threshold is fraught with establishing the regime of minority dictatorship. But what is worse, a short synopsis reveals that Russia’s electoral system has been constantly degrading during the past two years: single-member constituency system in the State Duma elections was banned; the citizens were refused the right to self-nomination as candidates; “against all” option was withdrawn from the bulletins. As for the turnout, haven’t Russia’s neighboring countries witnessed the 112 % turnout? Why can’t we have the same results?!
Lately I’ve been getting more and more puzzled about the way some basic conceptions are interpreted here in Russia. For the whole democratic world a notion “lame duck” identifies an outgoing president, whose time in office is expiring. In our country this image can be rather referred to the citizens whose wings are constantly clipped by the lawmakers. The president might already know the name of his successor, but will anybody vote for him in free democratic elections? I strongly doubt it.
As for the current legislative stir, Russian MPs are absolutely right concluding that it is much easier to change the Constitution than the people.
Akram Murtazaev is a laureate of The Russian Journalist Award “Zolotoye Pero” ("The Golden Pen").
November 16, 2006
|
