Representatives of municipal councils chair most of TECs in Moscow

Author: Vasily Vaisenberg, the Movement ‘Golos’ expert on short-term election observation

On December 10, 2015, the Moscow City Election Commission (MCEC) finally endorsed the composition of territorial commissions (TECs) in Moscow for the State Duma Elections (in autumn of 2016) and Presidential Elections of the Russian Federation (in spring of 2018). Under the Law, MCEC endorses the composition of territorial commissions and appoints chairmen; the commission from among its members elects deputy chairmen and secretaries at its first meeting.

By the way, the first meetings are held shortly. The MCEC encourages to hold the meetings by 25 December 2015. The chairman plays an important role in the work of the entire commission. It is he who defines the ‘work policy’ related to observers and candidates, the allocation of financial resources and much more. Although under the law the commission is a collective body, but in practice, unfortunately, it is not so. I will come back to this point. In the meantime, let's take a look at the appointment of TECs’ chairmen. Since all the decisions of Moscow Election Commission are published on the website, you can check who has been ultimately appointed to the post.

In total, 123 territorial commissions were established. It would seem that the appointment to such an important post as the chairman must be guided by the personal characteristics of a candidate.

The chairmen of TECs in Moscow:

• 102 - nominated to the commission by the Municipal Council;
• 15 – nominated to the commission by the preceding commission members;
• 6 – nominated by other associations, but political parties.

So we see that the vast majority of appointed TEC chairmen, namely 102 persons, were nominated by municipal councils. It turns out that the most important are not the characteristics of a chairman, but the body nominating a candidate? The same as if a school principal would be elected mostly from among mathematics teachers, very rarely - teachers of Russian language and never – teachers of history. Or maybe they are all great professionals and all this happened just by coincidence? Well, it is hard to believe it has been just a coincidence and if they have been purposefully nominated by municipal councils, it is even worse.

Now let’s have a look at the second group of assigned chairmen – there were 15 TEC chairmen nominated by the preceding members of TEC. I would like to remind that any election commission is a collective body, which means that any action shall be considered in a meeting and recorded in a protocol or decision. I would like to have a look at 121 such decisions and protocols, as in Moscow these many incumbent TEC members were elected for the next term. I allege that there were very few such decisions or protocols issued. In this regard the newly elected TEC in Zamoskvorechye district could be mentioned, as there any member from the preceding commission was not elected to the chairman post. Apparently, the preceding commission gathered for a meeting, though failed to make a collegial decision on who will be re-elected to the new commission.

Let's have a look at elections of deputies and secretaries. Let's hope that they will be chosen based on the candidates’ knowledge and skills, but party affiliation and place of work.