According to him, the amendments will concern 14 laws. In particular, the Central Election Commission will propose introducing a single election day, cancel election blocs, make deputies responsible for the failure fulfilling their duties, increase financing of political parties by 6-8 times and introduce additional guarantees for the election of women to legislative bodies.
The main proposal is the introduction of a single election day, for instance, once a year in March, the CEC chairman stressed. An additional day may be fixed in November.
In his words, the new electoral legislation will stipulate that no less than 30% of women should be included in voting lists of political parties. This norm will be borrowed from international practice to make the political struggle more correct, Alexander Veshnyakov noted.
In 2005 the Russian Central Election Commission is to make a federal database of all Russian voters and is to take more efforts to provide information security of its work, he said. Moreover, a system of e-sessions of the commission is to be set up, Mr. Veshnyakov added.
Speaking about the results of the elections in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, the CEC chairman said that all regional legislative assemblies (parliaments) had been formed competently in 2004. In some cases the posts of deputies remained vacant if voting was based on the majority system.
According to Alexander Veshnyakov, the United Russia party was leading in regional elections. In different regions its members won from 23% to 37% of the vote. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF), the Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), the Party of Pensioners and the Union of Right Forces (SPS) were highly active, as well, he said.
