Abolishment of Governor Elections was a Great Political Mistake
On Friday, the Russian State Duma is considering a presidential bill that gives parties that have won elections to regional legislatures a right to nominate their candidates for governor. Who would Russian politicians and experts trust to nominate governors?
Valery Zubov, State Duma deputy, former governor of the Krasnoyarsk territory: "I believe that the decision to appoint governors instead of electing them by direct ballot will prove a great political mistake in the long term. So minor issues, such as how to expand the range of those authorized to nominate candidates, are of no interest to me."
Konstantin Simonov, Director General of the Center for Current Politics: "Governors should be appointed directly without any consultations. At present we have 89 very different regional governors who understand the tasks of developing the country and their respective regions very differently. If our goal is to develop the party system, then candidates should be nominated by legislatures. But if our goal is to modernize the economy, we should appoint governors and integrate regions."
Nina Tagankina, Executive Director of the Moscow Helsinki Group: "As the Constitution says that people are the source of power, they should elect governors. In fact, the new procedure of appointing governors has deprived people of that right, which has been usurped by part of the population that does not have this right."
Boris Nadezhdin, member of the SPS Federal Political Council: "I am positive that the Constitutional Court will at least adjust, if not annul the law abolishing governors` elections. But there is another way to adjust this ridiculous and unconstitutional procedure: to make amendments so that party lists at regional elections be leaded by official candidates for the governor`s post. The president will have to appoint by his decree the candidate from the winning party a governor. There should be no candidates introduced by the president`s plenipotentiaries. This is the classic scheme of a parliamentary republic, only at the regional level.
Gazeta
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