Novelties of the federal legislation on municipal elections

Abstract

The article examines the novelties of the draft federal law of the Russian Federation № 40361-8 On the general principles of the organization of local self-government in a unified system of public authority. In the course of the analysis, the author notes the positive changes laid down in the draft law, for example, the refusal to form a representative body of a municipality through delegation, in favor of direct elections. It is emphasized that the local level of government is the most accessible and close to the majority of the population, and the replacement of direct elections with indirect procedures, such as delegation, when forming a representative body of local self-government, leads to the alienation of local residents from solving issues of local importance. The question is raised about the validity of the introduction of a single-level system of organization of local self-government by the draft law in the context of geographical accessibility of local self-government bodies and the possibility of the population of remote territories to participate in the formation of local self-government bodies. The author predicts that such a system is difficult to adapt to the conditions of the peculiarities of population settlement in the territory of the Russian Federation. In the authors opinion, there is a negative tendency to strengthen the state vertical of power, which contradicts the democratic foundations of the state structure of the Russian Federation, enshrined in Article 12 of the Constitution.