Powers of the Election Commission of a Constituent Entity of the Russian Federation to Determine the Organizational Basis for Municipal Elections: Peculiarities of Regional Legislation

Abstract

The article deals with the issue of empowering territorial election commissions to prepare municipal elections. The abolition of municipal election commissions has created a situation in which regional legislation gives different answers to the question of whether the territorial election commission acquires the authority to organize municipal elections by virtue of law or by virtue of a decision of the regional election commission. The consequences of one or another variant of the answer are considered. In this regard, the composition of the powers and the role of the election commission of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation in determining the organizational basis of municipal elections becomes problematic. By comparative analysis of the laws of the constituent entity of the Federation on the organization of municipal elections and the laws defining the powers of regional election commissions, the author identifies three groups of subjects of the Federation, which present three different conceptual approaches to the possibility of influencing the organizational basis of municipal elections at the regional level. The article compares the procedure for assigning powers for the preparation of municipal elections, which was in force until 2022 and had a dispositive character, and the procedure for the acquisition by territorial election commissions of municipal electoral powers, which began to operate in March 2022 and demonstrated regional variability in different subjects of the Russian Federation. The author concludes on the preservation of constituent entity of the Russian Federation of discretion on the assignment of powers to organize municipal elections to the territorial election commissions and after March 2022 in the electoral legislation. Suggestions are expressed regarding the possibility of changing approaches to financing municipal elections.