Nezavisimaya Gazeta “Amended Constitution”
Results of 2008 - Politics
The President's takes crucial decision to amend the Constitution
Dmitry Medvedev has accomplished a lot in the six months since his election. But his highest profile move was a "technical" correction of the Constitution.
Does it matter if the President remains in power for four, five or six years? And does it matter for the electorate, who know little, if anything, about the operation of Parliament, how long the deputies, who were elected without good reason, just for fun, or because they rode a wave of protest, will live in Moscow?
However, the extension of the presidential and parliamentary terms is not a technical move.
This is exactly what Vladimir Putin meant in February 2004 when he expressed his opinion about the initiative of the Ivanovo deputies, who proposed extending the presidential term to seven years. He said: "There are conditions preventing us from supporting that initiative, for such striving for stability will destabilise the foundations of the Constitution, which is the guarantor of the country's sustainable development."
Putin said: "We must do our best to ensure the inviolability of the Constitution."
His next move supported his words: he did not run for a third term, showing respect for the inviolability of the Constitution and acting contrary to the ardent desire of his team.
The initiative to extend the terms means that Putin's views have changed dramatically after he became Prime Minister. On December 9, President Dmitry Medvedev said during a meeting with the Constitutional Court judges that he did not consider amendments of the Fundamental Law's individual clauses as a violation of its basic principles.
What has encouraged the two leaders to take this unprecedented step?
The Constitution ceased being a holy cow overnight, and may be amended again, possibly very soon, as can be seen from the recent leakage by Alexander Torshin, a member of the upper house, who has proposed writing several constitutions - just in case.
The amendment of the Constitution can be interpreted as a unilateral violation of the treaty signed between the authorities and society, because the Fundamental Law is the material embodiment of such a treaty. As it is, the treaty was changed in December, with the authorities not even consulting the other party to the treaty, or explaining their reasoning. And so the people decided - possibly quite correctly - that the current elite simply wants to keep their warm seats a while longer.
The upper and lower houses of Parliament reacted happily to the President's proposal and approved the amendments to the Constitution within a month. The President also proposed that the lower house should have more powers to control the Government, but the constitutional majority discarded the idea with a badly hidden grimace of distaste. The United Russia party did not think calling to account their own boss was such a good idea.
Seeking to make the country's political system more democratic and transparent, Medvedev proposed several other innovations, but the Duma was choosey about them.
For example, the President proposed that only deputies of local parliaments should be appointed members of the Federation Council, so that the upper house would indeed represent the interests of the regions. The law was eventually approved, but will not be enforced for two years.
Medvedev also showed concern for the so-called small parties, saying that the election barrier for them should be lowered to 5%, which would ensure them two or three seats in Parliament. He also proposed cancelling the election financial pledge and lowering, some time in the future, the minimum required party membership to 40,000.
These seemed like good proposals, but the small parties are unhappy. On the contrary, they complain that now they have only one way to become elected - by collecting signatures. They probably know better than the President does how well - or how poorly - these signatures are checked.
