Political reform is gaining momentum
'Gazeta.ru' publication
By Ekaterina Vinokurova
July 9th, Vyacheslav Volodin, First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration met with political scientists to take stock of the first result of the political reform agenda and to discuss the next political season. Konstantin Kostin and Vitaly Ivanov took part in a meeting. The event was attended by about 20 experts.
Konstantin Kostin told reporters after the meeting that Volodin had explained to the political analysts that the ultimate goal of the reform is the creation of a political system which, on the one hand would not operate in an old fashioned clunky, bureaucratic way but on the other hand would maintain its stability and predictability.
Volodin mentioned that the upcoming parliamentary elections (2016) are to be held on a mixed system where half the deputies will be elected from single-member constituencies. Volodin made it clear that now is the time to prepare for these elections: the people who will be chosen at the next convening of the single mandate candidates will not appear from thin air. And they will have to learn to hit the ground running with the regional agenda.
He also talked of the forthcoming elections for the Mayor of Moscow and Moscow Region Governor on September 8th of this year.
Questions were raised regarding the Municipal filter and the Kremlin’s attitude to the fact that in the end Sergei Sobyanin helped Alexei Navalny win the Municipal elections and Andrei Vorobyov helped Gennady Gudkov.
Volodin was unequivocal in saying that participation in the elections of opposition candidates is vital to ensure competitive elections and works to the benefit of the political system as a whole.
Speaking about the Municipal filter and a single day of voting, Volodin said that the political reform has just got started – only the first phase has been completed - so it would be a good idea to look at current law enforcement practice before changing or rejecting it.
