Weekly News Digest, January 18-24

Key issues: Election campaign in Moscow region, probable innovations to the electoral law, sentenced counterfeiters and other news.

Observers’ Rights

1. According to "Kommersant", Vladimir Putin signed four proposals presented by CEC and AP concerning amendments to the electoral law. The amendments, that must be finalized before the State Duma campaign starts, may extend the rights of election observers, however there is a risk of pressure on observers before the polling day.
2. The Ministry of Justice, according to ‘Kommersant’, has presented the amendments to the law on NGOs, expanding the definition of political activities by including election observation.

Changing the composition of CEC

1. The new composition of Central Election Commission shall be established by the end of March this year. According to ‘Kommersant’, regions have already started nominating candidates.
2. ‘Open Russia’ has collected opinions about the upcoming CEC rotation. The experts Arkady Lyubarev and Alexander Kanev agreed on the necessity to establish independent election commissions. The political scientist Dmitry Oreshkin believes it is important to change the law enforcement practice and the attitude to the CEC itself.

Court decisions on the September 13 Election

1. In Orenburg, the chairman of PEC No. 1113 was fined 100 thousand rubles for forgery of five voters’ signatures in applications for early voting and ballot papers. This was reported by regional prosecutor's office.
2. The court refused to cancel the results of election to Sochi city council, as reported by ‘Caucasian Knot’. The plaintiff believes that the appeal against the decision brings no results.

Other news

1. In Rybinsk, at the opening of UR primaries voters were queueing. In total, approximately 39 thousand voters cast their vote. According to the ‘One Rybinsk’ some voters cast their vote in exchange for money. Mayoral Elections are scheduled for March 20.
2. In Kaliningrad, the Commission on Local Government approved the newly introduced reduction of single-member constituencies in the September 2016 Election to the City Council. There will be 14 constituencies instead of 27, as RUGRAD.EU reported.
3. St. Petersburg city court upheld the decision of district court declaring the inaction of city election commission concerning information distribution to citizens as illegal and obliged to correct the shortcomings on the commission's website, informs ‘Observers of St. Petersburg’.
4. On January 27, experts will discuss the ongoing election campaign in Volokolamsk, Moscow region, where on the Election Day, February 7, ‘Golos’ will observe the voting.
5. 33 weeks left before the Election to the State Duma and the single voting day on September 18.