The amendments have been made to 13 legislative documents of the Russian Federation for a thorough correction of methods of legal regulation of holding elections and referendums, in connection with the Federal law passed on 18 May 2005 “On elections of deputies of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.”
In the law signed by the President, the idea is realised for political parties to participate independently in elections to bodies of state power and local self-administration, in connection with which electoral blocs are excluded from being participants of the electoral process.
The law stipulates the establishment of a 7 percent barrier for allowing lists of candidates to be allocated deputy mandates in the representative body of state power of the region of the Russian Federation.
The Federal law determines the concept of groups in the State Duma. A group is an association of all deputies of the lower chamber of parliament elected on a federal list of candidates who are allowed to be allocated deputy mandates. If a deputy of the State Duma leaves a group by his/her own request, this is seen as grounds for suspending his/her powers as deputy.
The procedure is specified for political parties to put forward candidates for deputies and other electoral positions in bodies of state power and local self-administration. Statutes are also specified concerning the financial accounts of political parties. The Central Electoral Commission is entrusted with checking that the requirement for registration and expenditure of funds is observed by political parties.
Simultaneously, from 1 January 2006 an increase is stipulated in the level of state financing of political parties, which receive support of voters at federal elections, and from 1 January 2007, there will be indexation of the level of state financing, taking into account the level of inflation forecast by the federal law on the federal budget for the appropriate year.