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Chapter XI. Complaints about Violations of Electoral Rights, Responsibility for Violation of Electoral Rights of Citizens
Article 79. Appealing Decisions and Actions (Inaction) Which Violate Electoral Rights of Citizens
Article 80. Grounds for Refusal to Register a Candidate and for Annulment of the Decision to Register a Candidate
Article 81. Grounds for Annulment of the Decision of an Election Commission On Voting Returns, Results of the Election of the President of the Russian Federation
Article 82. Responsibility for Violation of Electoral Rights of Citizens
ARTICLE 79. Appealing Decisions and Actions (Inaction) Which Violate Electoral Rights of Citizens
1. Decisions and actions (inaction) which violate electoral rights of citizens may be appealed by voters, candidates, registered candidates, electoral associations, electoral blocs, other public associations, agents of registered candidates, observers and election commissions. If the violations indicated in the appeal (appeals) affect a large number of citizens or if the violation has assumed a special public significance owing to some other circumstances, the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation may apply to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, which shall be obliged to consider the appeal on its merits.
2. Decisions and actions (inaction) of bodies of state power, bodies of local self-government, public associations and officials as well as decisions and actions (inaction) of electoral commissions and their officials which violate electoral rights of citizens of the Russian Federation may be appealed in a court.
3. Decisions and actions (inaction) of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation and its officials shall be appealed in the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation; decisions and actions (inaction) of election commissions of the Subjects of the Russian Federation and their officials shall be appealed in the court of the Subject of the Russian Federation; decisions and actions (inaction) of other election commissions shall be appealed in raion courts.
4. In cases provided by this Federal Law a court may reverse the decision of an election commission concerning voting returns and election results, other decisions of an election commission.
5. If a decision of an election commission was reversed by a court, a new decision on the substance of the matter shall be taken on the basis of the court decision by the election commission whose decision was reversed or by a higher-level election commission. Court decisions shall be binding on the election commissions concerned.
6. Consideration by a court of an appeal against the decision of an election commission concerning voting returns, election results as well as investigation of the facts relating to violation of this Federal Law shall not be regarded as breach of immunity of the registered candidate who was declared elected in accordance with Russian Federation law. The registered candidate declared elected shall not refuse to testify in an administrative, civil or criminal case initiated in connection with a complaint about violation of electoral rights of citizens committed in the course of his/her election.
7. Decisions and actions (inaction) of election commissions and their officials violating electoral rights of citizens may be appealed in a higher-level election commission.
8. When examining cases of refusal of registration of a candidate, annulment of registration of a registered candidate or when considering a motion to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation for declaring the election of a registered candidate null and void the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation shall be entitled to require and receive documents and other materials and hear explanations of officials and citizens.
9. A higher-level election commission shall be entitled to reverse the decision of a lower-level election commission and order it to consider the matter again or take a decision on the substance of the complaint.
10. Preliminary application to a higher-level election commission shall not be an obligatory condition for application to a court.
11. If a complaint was accepted for adjudication by a court and a similar complaint was filed by the complainants with an election commission, the given election commission shall suspend adjudication of the complaint until the court decision comes into legal force. The court shall inform the election commission about the receipt of the complaint and about the entry into legal force of the court decision taken upon its adjudication.
12. Decisions in respect of complaints received in the course of an election campaign shall be taken within five days but not later than a day preceding voting day or, on voting day or the next day, immediately. If the facts mentioned in complaints require additional verification, decisions in respect of such complaints shall be taken within ten days. Appeals against a decision of an election commission concerning voting results, election results shall be adjudicated by a court within two months from the day on which the appeal was filed.
13. The courts and prosecutor's offices shall organize their work (including on days-off) so as to ensure prompt adjudication of complaints within the periods prescribed by this Federal Law.
ARTICLE 80. Grounds for Refusal to Register a Candidate and for Annulment of the Decision to Register a Candidate
1. If a candidate, registered candidate violates this Federal Law, the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation shall be entitled to make a warning to this candidate, registered candidates and this warning shall be made known to voters through the mass media or by some other means. The Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation may refuse to register a candidate, annul registration of a registered candidate, annul the decision on voting returns, election results even if such a warning was not made.
2. The Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation may refuse to register a candidate if:
(a) it has been established that the information submitted by a candidate, an authorized representative of the electoral association, electoral bloc, initiative voters' group in accordance with this Federal Law is not accurate and its inaccuracy is essential;
(b) it has been established that a candidate carried out election campaigning before his/her registration;
(c) it has been established that voters were bribed i.e., a candidate, his/her authorized representative for financial matters, an electoral association, electoral bloc, initiative voters' group which nominated a candidate, committed an act prohibited by Clause 2 Article 53 of this Federal Law;
(d) there were gross or repeated violations of the rules prohibiting the governing bodies of enterprises of all forms of ownership from taking part in the organization of signature collection and the rules banning coercion in the course of signature collection, solicitation of voter signatures for any form of remuneration, collection of signatures where and when wages are paid, receipt of other monetary payments;
(e) when financing his/her election campaign, a candidate used money to finance his/her election campaign from sources other than his/her electoral fund in the amount exceeding 1 percent of the maximum limit established by this Federal Law for expenditures from a candidate's electoral fund;
(f) a candidate exceeded expenditures from the electoral fund by more than 1 percent of the maximum limit of expenditures from a candidate's electoral fund established by this Federal Law;
(g) in the course of the election campaign a candidate, his/her authorized representative for financial matters an electoral association, electoral bloc (including an electoral association which joined the electoral bloc), initiative voters' group which nominated a candidate and their authorized representatives, an organization whose founders, owners, possessors are and/or whose governing or supervisory bodies include the aforementioned persons and/or organizations (representatives of these organizations) carried on charity activities in the territory of the Russian Federation, asked other natural persons and legal entities to provide material and financial aid or services to voters, consented to the provision of such aid or services by natural persons or legal entities on their behalf;
(h) a candidate did not file his/her first financial report;
(i) a candidate took advantage of his/her official position or status;
(l) there are other grounds established by this Federal Law.
3. Registration of a candidate may be annulled by the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation or a court not later than a day preceding voting day if:
(a) a violation of this Federal Law indicated in Clause 2 of this Article was discovered after registration of the candidate;
(b) a registered candidate, his/her authorized representative or agent, an authorized representative of the electoral association, electoral bloc, initiative voters' group which nominated the registered candidate conducted propaganda in the territory of a military unit, in a military organization or institution;
(c) a registered candidate or his/her agent produced and/or disseminated printed, audio-visual election propaganda materials in violation of Clauses 3, 4, 5 and 9 Article 52 of this Federal Law;
(d) in the course of the election campaign a registered candidate, his/her authorized representative for financial matters or agent, an electoral association, electoral bloc (including an electoral association which joined the electoral bloc), initiative voters' group which nominated a registered candidate, their authorized representative, an organization whose founders, owners, possessors are and/or whose governing or supervisory bodies include the aforementioned persons and/or organizations (representatives of these organizations) carried on charity activities in the territory of the Russian Federation, asked other natural persons and legal entities to provide material and financial aid or services to voters, consented to the provision of such aid or services by natural persons or legal entities on their behalf;
(e) a registered candidate took advantage of his/her official position or status;
(f) a registered candidate did not file the financial report in due time;
(g) a registered candidate who is on government or municipal service or who works in the mass media under a labor or a civil-law contract did not suspend the performance of official duties for the period of his/her participation in the election;
(h) a fact of bribery of voters has been established, i.e., a registered candidate, his/her authorized representative for financial matters or agent committed an act prohibited by Clause 2 Article 53 of this Federal Law or that this act was committed by some other person on their request;
(i) when financing his/her election campaign a registered candidate used money to finance his/her election campaign from sources other than his/her electoral fund in the amount exceeding 1 percent of the maximum limit of expenditures from a candidate's electoral fund established by this Federal Law;
(j) a registered candidate exceeded the expenditures from the electoral fund by more than 1 percent of the maximum limit established by this Federal Law for expenditures from the electoral fund of a candidate, registered candidate;
(k) a registered candidate used unlawful donations contributed to his/her electoral fund in an amount exceeding 1 percent of the maximum limit established by this Federal Law for expenditures from the electoral fund of a candidate, registered candidate.
4. The Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation shall be entitled to refuse to register a candidate, ask a court to annul registration of a candidate if the candidate, registered candidate has misused the freedom of mass information. Having established the fact of misuse of freedom of information the court shall annul registration of the candidate.
ARTICLE 81. Grounds for Annulment of the Decision of an Election Commission On Voting Returns, Results of the Election of the President of the Russian Federation
1. If a registered candidate has committed violations indicated in Article 80 of this Federal Law but the violations were discovered after official publication of the results of the election of the President of the Russian Federation, the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation may ask the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation to declare election of the candidate null and void.
2. The decision of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation on the results of the election of the President of the Russian Federation may be annulled by a court if the court establishes that the violations indicated in Article 80 of this Federal Law have taken place and this does not make it possible reliably to establish the results of the expression of the voters' will.
3. A court of an appropriate level may also annul the decision of an election commission on the voting returns and election results in an electoral precinct, territory, the decision of the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation on the results of the election of the President of the Russian Federation if there have been breaches of the rules for compilation of voters lists, procedure for the formation of election commissions, voting and vote counting procedures (including interference with their monitoring), determination of election results, other violations of this Federal Law, if these actions (inaction) do not allow the results of the expression of the voters' will to be reliably determined.
4. A court of an appropriate level, the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, the election commission of a Subject of the Russian Federation may annul the decision of a precinct, territorial, election commission on the voting returns in the corresponding precinct, territory in cases provided by this Federal Law.
5. If voting returns in at least one-fourth of electoral precincts have been voided, the election of the President of the Russian Federation shall be declared null and void.
6. The decision on the results of the election of the President of the Russian Federation shall not be annulled because of violations of this Federal Law which were conducive to the election of registered candidates who have not been elected according to the voting returns or who have not received a sufficient number of votes to take part in the repeat voting, or violations which aimed to encourage or encouraged voters to vote for registered candidates who have not been elected according to the voting returns or who have not received a sufficient number of votes to take part in the repeat voting.
ARTICLE 82. Responsibility for Violation of Electoral Rights of Citizens
1. Subject to criminal, administrative or other responsibility under federal laws shall be the persons who:
(a) by coercion, deception, threats, fraud or other methods prevent a citizen of the Russian Federation from freely exercising the right to elect and be elected;
(b) take advantage of their official position or status to gain election;
(c) coerce citizens into or prevent them from putting their signatures in support of a candidate or participate in the forgery of such signatures;
(d) bribe voters, i.e., commit an act prohibited by Clause 2 Article 53 of this Federal Law;
(e) have not gathered and updated information about registered voters (voters lists) in due time;
(f) disseminate patently false information about candidates, registered candidates or do other acts and actions damaging the honor and dignity of candidates, registered candidates;
(g) violate the rights of election commission members, including non-voting members, observers, foreign (international) observers, authorized representatives of candidates, registered candidates, agents of registered candidates, authorized representatives of electoral associations, electoral blocs, initiative voters' groups, media representatives, including the right to receive information and copies of electoral documents in due time and to have the said documents certified;
(h) violate the election campaigning rules, including persons who conduct propaganda on the day preceding voting day and on voting day;
(i) engage in charity activities or produce and distribute commercial and other advertising materials in violation of this Federal Law;
(j) fail to ensure conditions for holding public events when they are obligated to do so by law;
(k) violate the rules of election campaign funding established by this Federal Law;
(l) conceal remaining ballots or produce extra ballots, absentee certificates which are not registered by an election commission;
(m) unlawfully interfere with or obstruct the work of election commissions or the performance by commission members of their duties;
(n) obstruct voting at voting premises;
(o) violate the secrecy of voting;
(p) force voters to vote against their own choice;
(q) forge electoral documents, draw up and issue falsified documents, deliberately falsify vote count or election results, do not present or publish information about voting returns in default of their duties;
(r) violate the rights of citizens to examine voters lists;
(s) issue ballots to citizens to allow them to vote for other persons or vote more than once in the course of the same voting, or issue marked ballots to citizens;
(t) fail to submit or publish reports on the expenditure of funds allocated for the preparation and conduct of the election, financial reports of candidates, registered candidates;
(u) employers refusing to grant a leave of absence envisaged by this Federal Law for participation in the election or performance of civil duties;
(v) officials of state bodies who fail to verify information about violations of this Federal Law, other federal laws when requested to do so by election commissions, and do not take any steps to stop these violations.
2. In accordance with Russian Federation laws on administrative offences a precinct, territorial election commission, the election commission of a Subject of the Russian Federation, the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation may draw up a protocol to record an administrative offence committed by a candidate, registered candidate, an authorized representative of an electoral association, electoral bloc and by other persons in cases provided by this Federal Law.
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