Russian senators might become electable
The upper chamber of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, proposes to make its members electable. According to a draft law, the Russian regions will in the future hold elections on their representatives to the council.
According to council speaker Sergey Mironov, the new law gives the governors and regional parliaments the right to together nominate three candidates to be voted on in direct popular elections. The winner of the votes will get the region’s one seat in the Federation Council. The elections will be held together with the elections to the regional legislative assemblies, newspaper Vedomosti reports. Reforms in the represenatition system of the Federation Council has for some time been in the pipeline. Governor of Sankt Petersburg, Valentina Mativenko, recently complained to head of the presidential administration Sergey Naryshkin that the senators in too many cases are people without knowledge of the regions they represent, the newspaper writes. In Arkhangelsk Oblast for example, Senator Rushailo, had hardly had put his feet in the region before he this winter was approved as senator. Sergey Mironov says he has not yet presented the reform to President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin. If the two powerful men favour the reform, Mr. Mironov will present it to the lower house of parliament, the State Duma. Today, it is the regional governors who appoint their representatives to the Federation Council. The governors‘ nominees then have to be approved by the regional parliaments. In parts of the 1990s the governors themselves were their regions‘ representatives in the Federation Council.
