© S. A. Khvalev
Russian electoral law is the most complicated legal matter that is predetermined by the variety of public relations arising in the electoral process. As a result, the suffrage system integrates the combination of legal institutions which are various  in content and functional purpose. Ultimately, all the variety of legal regulations governing the procedure of organizing and holding of elections in the territory of the Russian Federation is aimed at guaranteeing voting rights in general, as well as individual electoral powers of citizens. Many authors comment on such providing function of electoral legislation in their academic writings [1]. The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation confirmed the availability of such function. The Court repeatedly pointed out that the main target of the electoral legislation is to ensure the realization of the electorate rights [2].

At the same time, it should be noted that there are certain regulations which have systematic value for all electoral institutions at the current electoral law of the Russian Federation. Their optimality is an indication of legal quality of the electoral legislation, as the efficiency of the entire set of rules, regulating the procedure of elections, depends on the success of the legislative solutions described in such regulations.
 

Such provisions include rules on single voting days in the Russian Federation. It is obvious that the failure of the legislative concept adopted in regard to the question of single election days can give rise to a whole range of law-enforcement issues related to the organization of elections and voting, as well as to the terms of office of the relevant elected public authorities and officials.

It is considered that the undeniable advantages of the idea of single voting days are as follows:

- it makes possible to organize the periodic election process in a single time frame [3]. It prepares the conditions for specific electoral habits of the subjects with different participation status who are involved in elections.

- it optimizes the public administration system in the electoral field. First of all, it  has a positive impact on the work of the election commissions that perform control functions in relation to the procedure of holding the elections on various territories;

- it makes possible to have a single understanding regarding the timing of various electoral actions by the electoral subjects.

However, the need for raising the question is explained by increasing state-level discussions on the necessity to change the concept of single voting days stipulated in the Federal law of June 12, 2002,  N 67-FZ "On basic guarantees of electoral rights and the right to participate in the referendum of citizens of the Russian Federation" [4] (hereinafter referred to as the Federal law on basic guarantees of electoral rights).

So, first of all, it should be noted that as early as in 2010 the draft of Federal law "On amendments to the Federal law “On basic guarantees of electoral rights and the right to vote of citizens of the Russian Federation” " (hereinafter referred to as the draft of the Federal law) was introduced in the State Duma of the Russian Federation.  The draft of the Federal law offers to set as the single voting day the fourth Sunday of March in the year when terms of office of the specified bodies or the specified body deputies expire, except for the cases prescribed by the electoral law. The experience of setting the single voting day in some foreign countries (USA, Mexico) was the main argument for developers to make such changes [5].

As there were no conceptual remarks on the Federal law draft, it was decided to adopt the draft in April 2012 in its first reading.

Besides, it also should be noted that the President of the Russian Federation suggested changing the existing concept of single voting days during a meeting with the representatives of the regions. It was offered to set the second Sunday of September as the single voting day. As a result of the discussion, the President promised to direct the President Administration to develop an appropriate legislative initiative.

Thus, considering such a strong attention to the issue of the single voting days it is not excluded that any of the options will be implemented in the electoral legislation of the Russian Federation in the foreseeable future.

According to the current legislative concept, the second Sunday of March or the second Sunday of October in the year, when terms of office of the specified bodies or the specified body deputies expire, are the election days for bodies of state power and bodies of local self-government, except for the cases directly stipulated in the Federal law.

It is quite logical that the single voting days are directly related to the expire date of the term for which the relevant State bodies, bodies of local self-government are elected. According to p. 1 art. 8 of the Federal law “On basic guarantees of electoral rights” the term of election for the State authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, bodies of local self-government, members of these bodies, is set by the constitutions (statutes), laws of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, statutes of municipalities. At the same time in order to ensure the implementation of the provisions on the single voting days, the Federal law has clearly established that expiry date for deputies of public authorities and local government bodies is the second Sunday of March in the year, when terms of office of the specified bodies or the specified body deputies expire, or the second Sunday of October in the year, when terms of office of the specified bodies or the specified body deputies expire, in the cases, stipulated by the Federal law “On basic guarantees of electoral rights” (the election day for the year of elections of the State Duma deputies of regular calling). 

In our opinion, the existing concept is quite successful despite the disputes concerning the correctness of the set single voting days [6]. There are several positive points in the existing model of the single voting days. Firstly, considering the electoral process organization it was reasonable to set the method for determining election days in March or October for election to the State power regional and local self-government bodies.  Such an approach became the reason of preventing overloading the electoral system which would have been inevitable, if holding election days within a calendar year would be prohibited legally. Secondly, the electoral activities, as well as the efficiency of the electoral commissions system during the calendar year are different, as the practice shows. There are many reasons: it is the time of nationwide celebrations, organization terms of the educational process, and the time when citizens actively exercise their right to annual leave. Besides, other activities and events on the territory of holding elections can influence the electoral process (e.g. national census). Holding elections and the activities at the same time could negatively affect the quality of the electoral process, because human and logistical resources participated and involved in these processes can coincide [7].  The concept of the single voting days implemented in the existing electoral legislation is more or less agreed with the above mentioned conditions. The dates of single voting days are chosen more or less successfully within a calendar year.

At the same time, the study showed that proposals to change the concept of single voting days do not always stand up to criticism.

It appears that the main problems of the existing proposals for amending the single voting days in the case of their implementation would be as follows.

Firstly, in case of the implementation of the above mentioned proposals, the entire electoral process will be concentrated in one time period that is bad enough in terms of organization of the elections and voting rights compliance control. The problem is exacerbated in those constituent entities of the Russian Federation, where in accordance with p. 4 art. 24 of the Federal law “On basic guarantees of electoral rights” the powers of municipal election commissions are assigned to territorial election commissions.

In such a case, every year the amount of work during organizing and holding the municipal elections becomes overburden for the specified commissions, subject to the availability of the only voting day. The probability of critical errors increases during the electoral process that establishes the conditions for mass violations of electoral rights.

Thus, the proposed concept of a single election day does not correspond to the realities of the prevailing systems of electoral commissions in the subjects of the Russian Federation.

Secondly, extending or reducing the term of office of elected public authorities and officials became a serious problem that occurs during any innovations relating to changing the existing concept of the single voting days. In accordance with p. 2, art. 8 of the Federal law “On basic guarantees of electoral rights” changing (extension or reduction) the term of office of existing bodies or deputies are not allowed, except for the cases specified in the above mentioned Federal law. Analysis of the law-specified cases of extending or reducing the terms of office of the operating public authorities and officials showed that such a change is an extreme measure, which shall apply on the basis of the legislation meaning in the case of the public authorities system reforming. This statement is reflected  in the number of legal positions of Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, which pointed out that the possibility of extending or reducing the term of office of the operating public authorities set by electoral legislation is caused by local government reforming, the need to synchronize the system of local self-government in a new legal status. In any case, changing terms of office is only a temporary measure aimed at transition period [8].

It appears that the opinion of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation is fair and based on such fundamental principles of the electoral system as the obligingness and the periodicity of elections.

Thus, the change in the concept of the single voting days should be based on significant modifications of the public way in the life of the country, whereas existing proposals to amend regulations governing elections in the part covered are based only on the tradition of changing electoral legislation after the next elections of the federal bodies of state power.

In addition to the above mentioned problems, a single voting day proposed by the President of the Russian Federation, the second Sunday of September, is a very inconvenient date due to several circumstances. In practice, school teachers very often become members of local election commissions. In case of realization of the concept of a single voting day, the opportunity to involve teachers in the Divisional election commissions will get reduced, because in this case the Commission is set up in their vacation time. Secondly, September is the month of various crop harvesting in many regions of the country. Therefore, it can be assumed that the electoral activity will be low.

Finally, it is necessary to conclude that the legislative change in the existing concept of the single voting days is still possible in the Russian Federation. However, such adjustment of the electoral legislation must be deliberate and shall not minimize the positive points of the existing concept. Analysis of the existing proposals for amendment of the election regulatory acts showed that they are far from an ideal, are not based on the needs of law enforcement, and sometimes simply ignore them.

1. Source: V.V. Goncharov, Selectivity and participation of citizens in government as principles of formation and functioning of Russian state system» // Legal world. 2010. № 6. P. 12-17; V.S. Elistratova, Once again about the concept of the electoral system // Constitutional and municipal law. 2008. № 9. P. 19-22; L.G. Alekhicheva, Constitutional basis of the ratio of the federal and regional electoral law//Journal of Russian law. 1999. № 9. P. 9-15; N.I. Vorobiev, On strengthening the legislative guarantees for the holding of elections in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and municipal level " // Journal of Russian law. 2004. № 1. P. 15-20.
2. Source: p. 2 of the resolution of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation dated November 14, 2005 No. 10-P "On the case about the verification of constitutionality of the provisions of paragraph 5, article 48 and article 58 of the Federal law “On basic guarantees of electoral rights and the right to vote of Russian Federation citizens, paragraph 7,article 63 and article 66 of the Federal law "On elections of the State Duma deputies of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation" in connection with the complaint of the Commissioner for human rights in the Russian Federation" // Сollected legislation of RF. 2005. № 47. Art. 4968; sub-s 3, 4 the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation dated April 27, 1998 № 12-P "On the case about the verification of constitutionality of separate positions of article 92 of the Constitution of the Republic of Bashkortostan, part of the paragraph 1 of article 3 of the law of the Republic of Bashkortostan "On the President of Bashkortostan Republic” (from August 28, 1997) and articles 1 and 7 of the law of the Republic of Bashkortostan "On the election of the President of the Republic of Bashkortostan.
3. Source, for example: V.V. Viskulova, Single voting days in Russia and additional guarantees of the electoral rights of the citizens//Journal of Russian law. 2011. № 6. P. 61-70.
4. Collected legislation of RF. 2002. № 24. Art. 2253.

5. Source: http://www.asozd2 URL. duma.gov.ru/main.nsf/%28Spravka%29?OpenAgent&RN =440300-5&02

6. Source, for example: V.V. Viskulova, "Against all" vote: disapprove cannot be left (basing on decisions of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation) // Constitutional and municipal law 2008. № 5. P. 28-34.

7. Source, for example: I. Sas, Elections and the census do not fit into October//Russian newspaper 2009. April 17; O.A. Ezhukova, To the question of postponing the single voting day // Constitutional and municipal law. 2010. № 6. P. 30-33.

8. Source, for example: Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation dated July 12, 2005, № 309-O "On the refusal to admit for consideration of citizen Vladimir Brikker's complaint on the infringement of his constitutional rights, article 82 of the Federal law "On basic guarantees of electoral rights and the right to participate in the referendum of the citizens of the Russian Federation" and Nizhny Novgorod regional law "On combining elections, extension or reduction of the term of Office of the local self-administration bodies in Nizhny Novgorod region" // Access to "Consultantplus" Software; Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation dated April 8, 2010, № 440-O-O "On the refusal to admit for consideration of citizen V.A. Tarhanova's complaint on the infringement of her constitutional rights, the provisions of paragraph 2 article 8, the first paragraph of p. 4 article 82 of the Federal law "On basic guarantees of electoral rights and the right to participate in the referendum of the citizens of the Russian Federation" and the first and the third paragraph of article 1 , first and second paragraph of article 3 of the Samara regional law " On the extension and reduction of terms of office of chapters and representative bodies of municipalities in the territory of Samara region» // Access to "Consultantplus" Software.