State Duma Committee calls for return of the "against all" option

At a meeting today, the Russian State Duma Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State-Building recommended the lower house of parliament to pass a bill in the first reading offering to return the option "against all" on election ballots, on Friday, January 17.

"The Committee generally supports the concept of the bill and recommends that the State Duma adopts it in the first reading," the Committee head Vladimir Pligin said after the vote of the committee's members at today's meeting.

"We believe that the issue of introducing the norm (the option "against all" - Interfax) at elections to the federal government and the election of bodies of state power of the subjects of the Russian Federation requires further discussion," Piligin is quoted by "Interfax".

"With regard to municipalities, it is true that the system and the structure of problem-solving may allow the possibility of such an option (at the level of municipal elections - IF)," he added.

The relevant bill was submitted to the Duma in October 2013 by a group of senators led by Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko.