The System of Election Commissions in the Russian Federation

Abstract

The article considers the establishment of the system of election commissions in the Russian Federation, the cooperation between components of that system at the different levels of electoral campaigns and the problems, which may be caused by its non-cooperation and can not be solved if the system of election commission will not function as an single whole organism. There are two theses that would form a complex system of electoral commissions by legal regulation. First thesis could be shortly named as a «thesis of subordination (vertical governmental interaction)» and represents a new for electoral legislation definition of administrative (governmental) and functional subordination of election commissions, which is relevant only for the election period and for those election commissions, which take part in that elections. It is provided by vertical governmental interaction between different levels of the system of election commissions, which headed by single organizing elections electoral commission, which legally distributed rights and duties, and thus built a continuous line of authority, connecting each level to the next commission. The article pays attention that there is no such electoral campaign or certain electoral action, during which the complex of election commissions, for example at least within the subject of the Russian Federation, not to mention the whole of Russia, would act as a single system. Thus, in general, talk about the system of election commissions in this case is not necessary. Second thesis could be named as a «thesis of control activities». The article analyzes the influence of control activities definition on other aspects of election commission's activity. The article stresses that the thesis of control activities could be functionally realized only in the framework of competence, when the control is carried out only during the federal election campaign and only the activities of lower-level commissions. But it also can be realized in the framework of the full functionality and throughout Russia. Otherwise, the electoral system in the face of the CEC of Russian Federation controls the electoral process only during federal elections. This article is not about «сcontrolled elections» but about consolidation of unified approach measures, based on strict enforcement of the law. Nowadays, particularly, every measure of consolidation provided by a diverse and fragmented and, one might even say, inefficien t mechanisms discussed above in this article. When the measures do not work it gets to the prosecutor's supervision and court's proceeding of the relevant decisions, actions (inaction) of election commissions, which organize and conduct (mainly municipal) elections. It is obliviously that this issues should be solved by the system of election commissions independently without the involvement of such governmental bodies as a prosecutor and court.