Prospects for Judicial Review of Refusal to Register Candidate Lists of Non-Parliamentary Parties

Abstract

As was shown by the last election campaign, held on the single voting day on 13 September 2015, the issue of invalid signatures in signature sheets submitted for registration of lists of candidates “non-parliamentary” political parties to participate in elections, was one of the main. The latest trend is that parties try to shift the solution of this problem on the courts. However, the task of the judiciary is different: the restoration of violated rights, but not the verification of the signature sheets. In this regard, subject of study are the decisions of the superior courts of the Russian Federation on voting rights. The author purposes are to determine the root cause, which makes it impossible to challenge in court the decision of the election commission on refusal to register the list of candidates. To achieve this goal are used general research methods of cognition (analysis, synthesis, inferences), as well as the method of system analysis of legal phenomena. In result of the research the author comes to the conclusion that there are several reasons, including the imperfection of the legal procedure of verification of signature sheets. It is also worth noting that political parties do not use in full their rights in pre-trial settlement of disputes in the electoral commissions, which also becomes an important factor in the protection of their rights. With the aim of improving the legal mechanism of verification of signature sheets, the author proposes to supply political parties the right to petition to challenge the electoral commission those voters whose signatures were found to be inaccurate, submit a properly authenticated statement of voters signed in support of list of candidates, as well as a request for clarification of information contained in a certificate of the authority conducting the registration of citizens of the Russian Federation. Appeal for judicial protection in connection with the refusal of election commissions to register the list of candidates must be an extreme form of protection of electoral rights of the citizens.