Chapter 13. COMPLAINTS ABOUT VIOLATIONS OF ELECTORAL RIGHTS OF CITIZENS AND THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR VIOLATION OF THE LEGISLATION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION ON THE ELECTION OF DEPUTIES OF THE STATE DUMA

Article 90. Appealing Decisions and Actions (Omissions) Which Violate Electoral Rights of Citizens. Control Exercised by Election Commissions over Observance of Electoral Rights of Citizens

1. Appeals of decisions and actions (omissions) which violate the electoral rights of citizens shall be submitted in accordance with the procedure and within periods established by the Federal Law "On Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Right of Citizens of the Russian Federation to Participate in a Referendum."

2. Election commissions shall be obliged, within the scope of their competence, to consider the grievances which they receive in the course of the election campaign concerning violations of this Federal Law, other federal laws as regards regulation of the preparation and conduct of the elections; carry out inquires in connection with these grievances; provide written answers to the complainants within five days but not later than the day preceding voting day, and respond immediately to applications received on voting day or the next day. If additional verification of the facts mentioned in these grievances is required, the decisions on such grievances shall be taken within ten days. If the grievance cites the facts of violation of the provisions of this Federal Law, other federal laws regulating the preparation and conduct of the elections, by any political party which nominated a federal list of candidates or by a candidate, the representatives of this political party or the candidate shall be immediately informed of receipt of such grievance. These persons may give explanations on the merits of the grievance.

3. If a political party or a candidate violates this Federal Law, the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, the election commission of the subject of the Russian Federation may, within the scope of their competence, issue a warning to this political party, this candidate, which shall be made known to voters through the mass media or by some other method.

Article 91. Grounds for Annulment of Registration of Lists of Candidates, Reversal of the Decision of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation to Register a List of Candidates or Refuse to Register a List of Candidates, Removal of a Candidate from a List of Candidates, Cancellation of Registration of a List of Candidates

(as amended by Federal Law No. 64-FZ of April 26, 2007)

1. The registration of a federal list of candidates shall be annulled by a decision of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation on the basis of a decision of the political party to recall the federal list of candidates submitted to the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation in accordance with Article 49 of this Federal Law.

2. The registration of a federal list of candidates shall be annulled if the number of candidates who were withdrawn from this list of candidates on the basis of the statements of candidates about their refusal to participate in the election of deputies of the State Duma, by the decision of the political party to remove a candidate from the federal list of candidates (barring the withdrawal because of compelling circumstances) on the grounds set forth in Part 4, Article 44 of this Federal Law and Part 9 of this article, and also in connection with the removal from the federal list of candidates of regional groups of candidates exceeds 25 percent of the number of candidates on a certified federal list of candidates.

3. The registration of a federal list of candidates shall be annulled if, after withdrawal of candidates from this federal list of candidates, removal of regional groups of candidates from this list, less than 80 regional groups of candidates remain on this list, save as otherwise provided by Part 4 of this article.

4. If, after removal of regional groups of candidates on the grounds set forth in Part 10 of this article, the number of regional groups of candidates remaining on a federal list of candidates is less than 80 and if not more than 10 regional groups of candidates were removed, the registration of this federal list of candidates shall be annulled provided that the withdrawal of candidates from the list results in less than 75 regional groups of candidates remaining on this list.

5. The registration of a candidate included in a federal list of candidates shall be annulled by the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation if the candidate forfeits a passive electoral right.

6. The registration of a federal list of candidates shall be annulled by the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation on the basis of a legally effective court decision to suspend the activity of the political party which nominated this federal list of candidates or in the event of the liquidation of this political party.

7. The decision of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation to register a federal list of candidates, to refuse to register a federal list of candidates may be reversed by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on the basis of a petition of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, the political party in respect of which such decision of taken, some other political party, whose federal list of candidates was registered, if it has been established that the decision was taken by the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation in violation of the requirements set forth in Part 3, Article 44 of this Federal Law, other requirements of this Federal Law.

8. The registration of a federal list of candidates nominated by a political party may be cancelled by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on the basis of a petition of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation or some other political party, whose federal list of candidates was registered, not later than five days before voting day in the following cases:

(1) new circumstances have come to light, which constitute a ground for the refusal of registration of the federal list of candidates in accordance with Paragraph 1, 4.1, 4.2, 5, 7, 8 or 10, Part 3, Article 44 of this Federal Law. “New circumstances” shall mean the circumstances which existed when a decision was taken to register the federal list of candidates but which were not known and could not be known to the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation;

(2) the leader of the political party has repeatedly taken advantage of his office or official position;

(3) it has been established that voters were bribed by the political party, its agent, authorized representative, including an authorized representative for financial matters, or by some other person or organization acting on their instructions;

(4) expenditures made by the political party, its authorized representative for financial matters from sources other than the electoral fund of the political party and electoral funds of its regional branches to achieve a definite result in the elections exceed 5 percent of the maximum limit of all expenditures from an electoral fund of a political party established by this Federal Law;

(5) expenditures made by the political party, its authorized representative for financial matters from the electoral fund exceed by more than 5 percent the maximum limit of all expenditures from an electoral fund of a political party established by this Federal Law;

(6) the political party has failed to observe the restrictions imposed by Clause 1 or 1.1, Article 56 of the Federal Law "On Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Right of Citizens of the Russian Federation to Participate in a Referendum"; a candidate included in the registered federal list of candidates has failed to observe the restrictions imposed by Clause 1, Article 56 of this Federal Law, if the political party, which nominated this federal list of candidates, does not remove this candidate from the list as provided by Part 11 of this article;

(7) the political party, whose federal list of candidates was registered, has repeatedly failed to comply with the restrictions set forth in Part 5.2, Article 62 of this Federal Law;

The provisions of Paragraph 8, Part 8, Article 91 as amended by Federal Law No. 64-FZ of April 26, 2007 shall apply only in connection with actions of citizens and activity of political parties which took place after December 7, 2006.

(8) it has been established that during the period mentioned in Paragraph 4, Part 4.2, Article 5 of this Federal Law (but before nomination of a federal list of candidates) this political party has carried out the activity mentioned in Sub-Clause “g,” Clause 8, Article 76 of the Federal Law "On Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Right of Citizens of the Russian Federation to Participate in a Referendum" or a similar fact has been established in respect of any candidate included in the registered federal list of candidates during the aforementioned period (but before the citizen acquired the status of a candidate) if the political party which nominated this federal list of candidates does not remove this candidate from the list as provided by Part 11 of this article.

9. The registration of a candidate included in a registered federal list of candidates nominated by the political party may be cancelled by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on the basis of a petition of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation or some other political party, whose federal list of candidates was registered, in the following cases:

(1) new circumstances have come to light, which constitute a ground for the removal of the candidate from the federal list of candidates in accordance with Paragraph 1, 2, 3, 4, or 6, Part 4, Article 44 of this Federal Law. “New circumstances” shall mean the circumstances which existed when a decision was taken to register the federal list of candidates but which were not known and could not be known to the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation;

(2) the candidate has repeatedly taken advantage of his office or official position;

(3) the candidate has failed to observe the restrictions imposed by Clause 1 or 1.1, Article 56 of the Federal Law "On Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Right of Citizens of the Russian Federation to Participate in a Referendum";

(4) it has been established that a candidate concealed the information about his record of conviction;

(5) it has been established that voters were bribed by the candidate or a person or organization acting on his instructions.

10. A regional group of candidates may be removed from a federal list of candidates by a decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation handed down on the basis of a petition of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation if this regional group of candidates exceeded the expenditures from the electoral funds of the given regional group of a political party by more than 5 percent of the maximum limit of all expenditures from this electoral fund determined in accordance with this Federal Law.

11. The political party in respect of which proceedings have been initiated in connection with the protection of electoral rights of citizens on the grounds set forth in Paragraph 6 or 8, Part 8 of this article may remove from its federal list of candidates the candidate whose actions have been challenged in a lawsuit. The proceedings in this case may be terminated if such candidate is removed. from the federal list of candidates before adoption of a court decision in this case.

12. If a political party failed to observe the restrictions imposed by Clause 1, Article 56 of the Federal Law "On Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Right of Citizens of the Russian Federation to Participate in a Referendum" or a citizen, a political party did the acts mentioned, respectively, in Sub-Clause “g,” Clause 7 and Sub-Clause “g,” Clause 8, Article 76 of the aforementioned Federal Law before the citizen acquired the status of a candidate, before the political party nominated a federal list of candidates, the registration of the federal list of candidates may be cancelled on the basis of a prosecutor’s motion.

13. A petition for canceling registration of a candidate or a federal list of candidates, for the removal of a regional group of candidates from a federal list of candidates may be filed with a court not later than eight days before voting day.

Article 92. Reversal of the Decision of an Election Commissions on Vote Returns, Results of Election of Deputies of the State Duma

1. In the event of any violations of this Federal Law, the Federal Law "On Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Right of Citizens of the Russian Federation to Participate in a Referendum" in the conduct of voting or determination of vote returns the higher-level election commission, before it determines the vote returns and establishes the election results, may reverse the decision of a lower-level election commission on the vote returns and order a vote recount or, if the violations do not make it possible reliably to determine the results of the expression of the voters' will, it may annul the vote returns, election results..

2. After the vote returns have been determined and the results of the election of deputies of the State Duma have been established, the decision of a lower-level election commission may be reversed only by a court, or a court may rule that changes be made in the protocol of the election commission and/or in the summary table. The election commission shall inform the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation of its decision to file a petition with a court to annul the vote returns or make changes in the protocol and/or the summary table. If the court rules that changes be made in the protocol of the election commission and/or in the summary table, the election commission which prepared this protocol and/or summary table shall prepare a new protocol of vote returns marked “Repeat” and/or a new summary table marked “Repeat.”

3. Having reversed the decision of an election commission on the vote returns the court of an appropriate level may also order vote recount, if any violations of this Federal Law, the Federal Law "On Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Right of Citizens of the Russian Federation to Participate in a Referendum" were committed in the conduct of voting or determination of vote returns. If the violations do not make it possible reliably to determine the results of the expression of the voters' will, the court may annul the vote returns.

4. A court may reverse the decision of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation on the results of the election of deputies of the State Duma after the establishment of these results on the basis of at least one of the following facts determined by the court:

(1) expenditures made by any political party, whose federal list of candidates was included in the distribution of deputy seats, from sources other than its electoral fund and electoral funds of its regional branches to finance its election campaign exceed 10 percent of the maximum limit of all expenditures from an electoral fund of a political party established by this Federal Law;

(2) a political party, whose federal lists of candidates was included in the distribution of deputy seats, was bribing voters and this infraction does not make it possible to establish the real will of the voters;

(3) in the course of election campaigning a political party, whose federal lists of candidates was included in the distribution of deputy seats, failed to comply with the requirements of Part 1, Article 64 of this Federal Law and this does not make it possible to establish the real will of the voters;

(4) the leader of a political party, whose federal lists of candidates was included in the distribution of deputy seats, took advantage of his office or official position and this infraction does not make it possible to establish the real will of the voters.

5. Apart from the grounds listed in Part 4 of this article the court of an appropriate level may also reverse the decision of an election commission on the vote returns and results of the election of deputies of the State Duma in the event of the violation of the rules for the preparation of voter lists and the procedure for the formation of election commissions; unlawful refusal to register a federal list of candidates admitted as such after voting day; other violations of the electoral legislation of the Russian Federation if such violations do not make it possible to establish the real will of the voters.

6. If the committed infractions do not allow the expression of the real will of the voters to be established reliably the reversal by a court of a decision on the results of the election of deputies to the State Duma shall entail the annulment of the election results.

7. The decision of an election commission on the vote returns shall not be reversed and the vote returns and election results shall not be annulled because of violations of this Federal Law which were conducive to the election of candidates or aimed to encourage or encouraged voters to vote for federal lists of candidates who/which were not included in the distribution of deputy seats on the basis of the vote returns.

8. Infractions mentioned in Part 4 of this article, which were committed by separate political parties, may result in the reversal by a court of the decision to include the federal lists of candidates nominated by these political parties in the distribution and redistribution of deputy seats.

9. If a regional group of candidates violated the requirements of this Federal Law by exceeding the expenditures from the electoral fund of the relevant branch of the political party by more than 10 percent over and above the maximum limit of all expenditures from this electoral fund, the decision on the transfer of deputy seats to this regional group of deputies shall be reversed by a court and there shall be no redistribution of deputy seats within the federal list of candidates.

10. If vote returns in some electoral precinct, territory, subject of the Russian Federation are annulled after the election commission of the next higher level completed preparation of the protocol of vote returns, election results, this election commission shall be obliged to prepare a new protocol of vote returns, election results marked “Repeat.”

11. On the basis of the protocols of vote returns marked “Repeat” or “Vote Recount” prepared after the higher-level election commission prepared the protocol of vote returns, election results and the summary table, appropriate changes shall be introduced in this protocol and this summary table by the higher-level election commission.

Article 93. Responsibility for the Violation of the Russian Federation Legislation on the Election of Deputies of the State Duma

The responsibility for the violation of Russian Federation legislation on the election of deputies of the State Duma shall be established by the federal laws.