Parliament members and business

The State Duma commission began an investigation on the case of the opposition PM Gennady Gudkov who is accused of mixing parliamentary and business work. The materials of the Investigation Committee and the General Prosecution the commission will consider during five days, however yesterday the secretary of the General Council of United Russia, Segey Neverov, stated: “The events around Gudkov elicited the necessity of some amendments to laws. For instance, we will propose our colleagues to discuss some amendments to the law on the PM status.”

First. If a candidate was elected a PM and before he or she was involved into management of business, owned the business, the order of shifting these functions and shares to other structures and people should be defined.

Second. The norm about a conflict of interest should be defined clearly. If a PM owns a major stock of shares of an enterprise or has been a head of this enterprise, he or she cannot be a member of a committee connected with activity of the enterprise. There will always be seduction to make decisions in interests of this structure, for example, if a person owned a major pharmaceutical business, he or she must not be a member of the health care committee.

Neverov believes that it would be right and fair in relation to voters: “We have a serious election campaign ahead. We will choose heads of five Russian constituents, elections to representative structures of Russia will take place. 169 PMs in six constituents will be elected. Kaliningrad will hold elections. This campaign will be different from others by new political reality after adoption of several laws which improved inter-party competition.”

United Russia will participate in all election campaigns – from governors to municipalities. The most important is elections of heads of five constituents of the federation. 12 parties have already promoted their candidates for these elections. According to Neverov, “a myth that collecting signs for deputies of the municipal level is an obstacle for other parties was dispelled. 32 candidates from 12 parties will participate, the registration is on-going. 24 parties presented their lists in the elections to legislative assemblies in six regions. More than 30 parties were registered, 28 have a right to participate in the elections. In general, 26 parties will take part in municipal elections. We can see that laws adopted in spring give more opportunities to parties, are aimed at liberalization of the political system and are really working. Of course people benefit from it, as they gain more opportunities for a choice, and competition will be quite high in the coming elections. 369 deputies will be elected in six regions. The number of candidates is 4280.”

Municipal elections will take place in 76 constituents, 26 215 candidates will participate, 1950 of them – heads of municipal entities. United Russia proposed 1423 candidates; KPRF – 154 candidates, 8%; A Justice Russia – 128; LDPR – 178; Yabloko – 12; Right Cause – 6.

As for candidates in municipal elections, 24 265 deputies will be elected. United Russia proposed more than 17 thousand candidates; KPRF – 1352candidates; A Justice Russia – 1192; LDPR – 1058.

Our opponents demonstrate that they are not interested in this level of power, because it requires real problems and real work with people. At the same time, United Russia is presented in a serious new way, our candidates are people with fresh ideas and are ready to actively work with voters.