Parliamentary elections will include two stages now: first political parties will hold primary votes to compile their electoral lists, and then there will be a national election.
The United Russia party plans to submit a bill to the lower house making the primary procedure mandatory for all political parties – a preliminary internal vote to decide which members should be included on the party list.
"We are perfectly willing to introduce this legislative initiative in September and start discussing it," First Deputy Speaker Oleg Morozov said at a news conference Wednesday. The plan is to make it a mandatory procedure for all political parties to hold an internal vote, he added. Each party will be able to decide on the specific format and procedure for its primaries.
The proposal to make it obligatory for parties to select their candidates through a primary vote was first voiced by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, United Russia's leader. He arrived at the Russian Popular Front headquarters on Tuesday to discuss the interim results of the voting held by that organisation involving United Russia members and other members of the front.
United Russia has completed its primary elections across the country and will announce the final results on August 25, naming the main candidates for seats in the sixth State Duma.
United Russia is so far the only Russian political party to hold internal voting – primaries – regularly. The first primaries were held in August 2007 before the autumn elections to the State Duma. In November 2009, the party voted to include primaries in its charter as a regular procedure.
"We have been able to open up new possibilities for Russian civil society to form a national agenda, and I consider this to be extremely important," Putin explained. "The number of candidates running in this year's primaries is three times higher than in 2007. More than 60% of these candidates ran independently or as nominees of public organisations. Some 220,000 electors were present to assess them and their programmes. This isn't bad at all."
Primaries have also improved United Russia's political image in the run-up to the elections. According to a recent survey by the polling company FOM, the number of people intending to vote for United Russia in December has grown 3% in a few days. The party's popularity rating has reached 43%.
Putin seemed impressed by the primaries' results as well as by voter attention to the event. "The most important thing is that inner party competition brings out talented people and original ideas," he noted.
"With this in mind, I'd like to ask our colleagues from our party who are currently sitting in the State Duma to consider (along with members of other parties as well) the possibility of making primaries a standard practice for all political parties, and introducing the appropriate amendments to the existing laws," he proposed. "It seems to me that this would be interesting and exciting, and that it could stimulate political life in this country."
The opposition parties, on the other hand, appeared opposed to the idea of adopting this practice. Ivan Melnikov, a Communist Party official and deputy speaker of the lower house, told reporters: "Frankly speaking this statement should have shocked every political party, not just the KPRF. The leader of a party – the ruling party in fact – and importantly, the country's second top official, is trying to interfere in other party's processes, including the opposition party's."
Representatives of A Just Russia made a similar statement, while LDPR proposed staging primary voting with regard to gubernatorial candidates as well.
Alexei Chesnakov, head of the public council under United Russia's General Council presidium, believes that these parties are so strongly opposed to primaries because their leaders are afraid of losing control of their election lists. "It is no secret that in some political parties these lists are compiled privately and at the very last minute," he said in a clear hint about the common practice of trading places on the party election lists. "A lawmaker is authorised to regulate political parties, especially in an effort to increase transparency as is the case. The idea is to provide voters with some guarantee that people who get on their party list and then into parliament are honest and active professionals, and that they have not paid for their seats," Oleg Morozov argued.
Yekaterina Semyonova