|
PRESS CONFERENCE WITH FEDERAL REGISTRATION SERVICE OFFICIAL
GALINA FOKINA ON RUSSIAN POLITICAL PARTIES INTERFAX, 10:40,
OCTOBER 26, 2006
(Federal News Service (Russia) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)
Moderator: Good day dear colleagues. Welcome to the Interfax
Press Center. Our guest today is the acting head of the Department
for Political Parties and the Registration of Public, Religious and
Other Organizations of the Federal Registration Service, Galina
Andreyevna Fokina.
The topic has been announced: "The results of the probe into
the activities of political parties". You may of course ask other
questions too if they are related to the work of this department.
Galina Andreyevna will make a short opening speech and then answer
your questions. Thank you.
Fokina: Good day. The topic has been announced and I will
simply say a few brief words. You know that, starting from November
2005, the Federal Registration Service developed a plan of
examinations for the first half of 2006 in accordance with the
federal law "On Amendments to the Political Parties Law". The
purpose of the examinations was to verify the number of political
parties that were registered and operating in Russia.
In 2004 federal law No. 168 "On Amendments to the Political
Parties Law" introduced the following requirements. A political
party should have at least 50,000 members, it should have branches
of no less than 500 members in than half of Russian regions,
and the other branches should have no less than 250 members.
The purpose of our examinations was to find out if political
parties complied with these requirements. We completed our
examinations in July. Some of the results have already been
announced with regard to 19 political parties. Today we will
announce the results for the remaining 16 political parties. As you
know, 35 political parties are registered in Russia.
So which of those 16 parties comply with the requirements and
which don't? I will only give you the membership data verified by
the Federal Registration Service and will skip membership data of
January 1, 2006.
The Republican Party of Russia has 39,970 members. It has
regional branches of no less than 500 members in only 32 regions.
The party was found in breach of the requirements of the federal
Political Parties Law.
The Party for the Revival of Russia has 51,588 members and 46
regional branches of no less than 500 members.
The Russian United Industrial Party does not comply with the
requirements but last Friday it held a congress and decided to
liquidate itself and submitted liquidation documents yesterday.
The National Conservative Party of Russia has 24,445 members
and 16 regional branches of no less than 500 members. As you
understand, this party does not comply with the requirements.
The Free Russia Political Party has 55,063 members and 47
regional branches with no less than 500 members.
The People's Party of the Russian Federation has 74,150 members
and 51 regional branches of no less than 500 members.
The Socialist United Party of Russia has 51,925 members and 45
regional branches of no less than 500 members.
The Eurasian Union has 4,648 members and one regional branch of
no less than 500 members. The party does not comply with the
requirements of Political Parties Law.
The Agrarian Party of Russia has 133,531 members and 49
regional branches of no less than 500 members. The party complies
with the federal law.
The Russian Ecological Party "The Greens" has 51,710 members
and 45 regional branches of no less than 500 members. The party
complies with the federal law.
The Social Democratic Party of the Russian Federation has
52,303 members and 37 branches of no less than 500 members. The
party does not comply with the federal law because it has branches
in less than half of Russian regions even though the total number of
its members is 52,000.
The Social Justice Party has 50,765 members and 47 regional
branches of no less than 500 members.
The Russian Party of Life has 108,022 members and 54 regional
branches of no less than 500 members.
The National Revival Party "People's Will" has 53,440 members
and 45 regional branches of no less than 500 members. The party
complies with the federal law.
The Democracy Party of Russia has 60,248 members and 46
regional branches of no less than 500 members. The party complies
with the federal law.
And the last political party -- the Party of Social Protection
has 22,372 members and 12 regional branches of no less than 500
members. The party does not comply with the federal law.
The conclusion is as follows: 19 political parties comply with
the federal law and 16 political parties do not. I will name the
parties that do no comply with federal legislation: the Party for
the Development of Entrepreneurship, the Russian Party of Peace, the
Freedom and Government by People Party, the Russian Communist
Workers' Party/Russian Party of Communists, the Conceptual Party of
Unity, the People's Republican Party of Russia, the Party for the
Development of Regions, Nature and Society, the Social Democratic
Party of Russia, the Union of People for Education and Science, the
Russian Constitutional-Democratic Party, the Republican Party of
Russia, the Eurasian Union, the Party of Social Protection, the
Russian United Industrial Party, and the National Conservative Party
of Russia. All in all 16 parties failed to comply with federal
legislation.
Now I will name the parties that complied with federal
legislation: the People's Party of the Russian Federation, the
Democratic Party of Russia, the United Russia Party, the Russian
Party of Peace and Unity, the Communist Party of the Russian
Federation, the Union of Right Forces, the Liberal Democratic Party
of Russia, the Russian United Democratic Party Yabloko, the Patriots
of Russia Party, the Motherland Party, the Party for the Revival of
Russia, the Russian Party of Pensioners, the Russian Ecological
Party "The Greens", the Agrarian Party of Russia, the National
Revival Party "People's Will", the Socialist United Party of Russia,
the Russian Party of Life, the Free Russia Party, and the Social
Justice Party.
All in all 19 political parties fully complied with the
Political Parties Law. So this is basically what I wanted to tell
you. If you have any questions I will try to answer them now.
Q: Representatives of the political parties that failed to
register claim that the number of members they declared -- for
example, the (inaudible) party reported 50,000 but you say it
was less. How could you account for this discrepancy?
Fokina: I said in the very beginning that these were the
conclusions made by the Federal Registration Service after the
examinations. Indeed the party submitted membership data and I will
tell you how many members they reported. But I give you the numbers
verified in the course of the examination. The party reported 63,926
members and 50 regional branches. But this information was not
verified during the examination.
Q: (Off mike.)
Fokina: Indeed, the People's Patriotic Union was denied
registration on October 19 for purely legal reasons. The first
reason was that the submitted documents on the creation of regional
branches in three regions indicated that no meetings on the creation
of regional branches had been held and the persons mentioned in the
minutes of the meetings denied they had participated in the
meetings. In other words, the first reason was inaccurate
information.
The second reason was that four provisions in the movement's
charter ran counter to federal legislation, namely the principles of
forming the movement's leadership and the decision-making procedure
were at odds with existing laws.
The third reason was that the name of the movement failed to
comply with existing requirements. Under current legislation, a
movement and a union are two different organizational and legal
forms of a public association. The name should mention only one
organizational and legal form chosen by a public association. If you
have noticed their name has both: the all-Russia public movement is
one organizational and legal form, and the word "union" is a totally
different organizational and legal form. This is why we said that
they should make up their mind and decide whether it would be a
movement or a union. In other words, the name failed to comply with
legislation.
And the last reason. According to the law, a party is required
to indicate the location of its permanent governing body. This
movement indicated the location of its executive body.
So registration was denied on these grounds. Anticipating your
questions, I want to say that a denial of state registration is not
an obstacle to further registration, and the law makes this very
clear, but only if the shortcomings have been remedied.
This is not the first movement that was denied registration.
Some have been denied two or three times but then correct their
mistakes and register. So a denial is not an obstacle, and they may
come and apply for registration at any moment. There are no time
limits.
Q: Will they be able to continue working or do they have to --
Fokina: According to the law a public association may operate
without state registration.
Q: How exactly did you verify membership down to the last
member? Some representatives of parties or party leaders
(inaudible)... wonder how this can be verified. Did you use the help
of police or some other agencies? What was the verification
mechanism?
Fokina: You know that the Political Parties Law has been in
effect since 2001. In the past membership requirements were
different -- 10,000 members. From the moment of registration of the
political party we were keeping track of the membership of the
party.
What are the mechanisms? When registering a regional branch,
the list of the members of political party in the given regional
branch is submitted. We already have such information. And changes
should be registered that have taken place since. What can be the
changes? Change of address, change of the person authorized to act
on behalf of the political party or the regional branch and the
package of documents also includes information on the members of the
political party.
At the time of verification we had data since the formation of
the political party or the formation of its regional branch. What
were the methods were used in the course of the verification? We
phoned some of the members to make sure that the members were real.
But of course, if a branch has 5,000 members we could not call on
all of them, we made selective calls.
Because it is no secret that sometimes the lists contained
inaccurate information and the members on the list were either non-
existent or were not resident on the territory of the given region
or were persons long since dead.
The second method. Sometimes we went to the addresses where
there was no telephone. Also selective visits. And we drew on the
information available from the Federal Registration Service and its
territorial bodies on citizens, on members of the political party.
This is what we proceeded from and what we had to go on during the
inspections.
Q: I have two questions. Have the Party of Life, the Motherland
and the Pensioners Party committed any violations? And the second
question. Were there violations in the branch of the Party of Life
in Yekaterinburg?
Fokina: What can I say? I don't think there is a single
regional branch, or shall I say, the majority of regional branches
of all the political parties were found to be in breach of some
rules. For example, they failed to submit reports on the
participation of the regional branch or party in elections. And such
branches or parties were warned.
Inspections revealed that people under the age of 18 were
sometimes admitted to membership of a party. That, too, is a
violation of the law and the guilty parties were warned. Sometimes a
party or its branch changed address but failed to notify the
territorial body or the Federal Registration Service. Under the law,
they had to do it within three days.
So, a regional branch or a party could be warned not only when
they did not meet the membership requirement. Any violation of the
law could be grounds for serving a warning on a party.
As for the Party of Life, some regional branches were warned in
connection with the above-mentioned violations. But on the whole,
the party fully meets the requirements of federal legislation
because they have than 45 branches with a membership of over
50,000 and not a single branch with a membership of less than 250.
Sometimes the inspections revealed that a branch was working
normally and perfectly within the law but it didn't make the
necessary minimum membership requirement. It had 150 or 180 or even
230 members, but not 250. And these branches were shut down as a
result of the inspection. We have the court rulings on the closure
of such regional branches on the grounds that they fell short of the
250 member requirements. I think every party has such branches.
Q: What about the Motherland and the Pensioners Party?
Fokina: Both the Motherland and Pensioners Party are fully in
compliance with the law. They are no different from other parties:
under-age members, change of address without notification. Nothing
in particular.
Q: Forgive my legal illiteracy, but did I understand you
correctly that the 18 parties which have been granted registration
can definitely take part in elections, but do the 16 parties who can
build up their membership have a chance to take part in elections?
Fokina: Law 183, passed in 2004 set a different membership
requirement and said that by January 1, 2006 all the political
parties registered prior to the effective date of the law had to
build up their membership. Let me repeat, the total membership is to
be 50,000 and there have to be 45 regional branches with at least
500 members and the remaining branches are to have at least 250
members. And then the law goes on: if a political party fails to
comply with the law, it can choose either to transform itself into a
different public entity or to disband. If a political party makes no
choice before January 1, 2007 then the provision of the law kicks in
and the powers pass to the Federal Registration Service. The law
says that such a political party is subject to liquidation under the
procedure established by the law.
Q: And if before 2007 the membership --
Fokina: The membership had to be built up before January 1,
2006 which was the reason why the verification was carried out.
Q: Are there any parties which disbanded without waiting for
January 1?
Fokina: As of today, we have information that the United
Industrial Party officially held a congress and decided to disband.
We have a package of documents for the registration of its
liquidation.
Q: Do the parties which failed the audit have a chance to
challenge the results of the audit, file a complaint with a law
court and prove that it had made the membership requirement?
Fokina: Under the current law, each party will be handed a
reference, today we announced that 16 parties have not yet passed
the audit and 19 parties have received our approval.
A political party that disagrees with the findings of the
Federal Registration Service has the right, first of all, to submit
its written objections to the Federal Registration Service. Every
objection will be considered meticulously. We are aware of the
consequences of our conclusions. And only after the objections filed
by a party have been considered will the final decision be taken.
If the party still disagrees with us, it has the right to go to
court and challenge our decision.
Q: How much time does it take for a complaint to be processed?
Because many have said that they had filed complaints, but they have
been considered too long. In particular, this has been stated by the
Republican Party.
Fokina: Under the law, a month is given for considering any
applications, including those concerning registration, any
application by a citizen, a legal entity. The leadership of the
Federal Registration Service has closely monitored the observance of
those deadlines. Therefore, if a political party appeals to us with
written objections, that will certainly be considered within a
month. Those deadlines have been observed.
As for appeals to the court, it is three months as fixed by the
law.
Q: The head of the Central Election Commission said about the
Yabloko party that they have members of two grades, as he put it. In
this connection, have you only checked the number of members or such
things concerning the party charter?
Fokina: This is an important question. Really, the charter --
well, it does not divide party members, but their rights and duties
as party members emerge in two stages. It does not happen at the
moment the application is submitted and party membership is granted
by an authorized body. All rights and duties emerge at the moment of
registration. But you certainly realize perfectly well that some
time passes from the moment the decision is made on giving party
membership and registration. If between those two moments a
conference or a general meeting is held in a particular branch,
those members that have not been registered do not have the right to
take part in that general meeting or conference. Naturally, this is
violation of legislation on political parties, and the political
party was issued a warning in this connection.
Well, we verified membership. Under the law, if there is a
citizen's appeal, a personal application for membership of a
political party and if there is a decision by an authorized body to
grant membership to that citizen, under the law he gets all the
rights and duties as a party member at that moment. And that party
member has the right to elect and be elected since party membership
is granted. This explains why we issued a warning to Yabloko.
Q: What follows this warning?
Fokina: We have fixed a deadline and they have to mend the
wrongs. They can only do this by amending the charter during a party
congress. As far as I know, they really intend to hold a congress
and amend the charter.
Q: I have a question about those three parties having decided
to merge. Have they submitted any documents to be able to start this
merger? Alexei -- (inaudible) -- said the only way was to unite on
the basis of one of those parties, but they plan creating a new
organization.
Fokina: As of today, according to mass media reports, they
decided to merge. The mode of that merger was discussed for a long
time. In principle, according to the law, it might be possible to
join or merge.
As of today, according to information available to us, they
have decided to hold a congress on October 28 to decide on this
union. Judging by that information, I cannot tell as to how this
will be done. It is quite possible that some parties will decide to
discontinue their activities and members of that party having
discontinued its activities will join the party that remains. We
will know all that on October 28, because we have been officially
invited to send our representative to attend the congress.
Q: Will they have enough time to do everything that is
required?
Fokina: The congress will decide.
Q: (Off-mike).
Fokina: You know, there will be no new organization, if they
decide to unite the following way: two parties decide to disband and
their members will appeal to join the remaining party. No deadlines
for that. One of those parties will just change and its membership
will grow as new members will join it. It will just amend its
charter. It is quite possible that the name of that political party
will be changed, that new provisions may be added to its charter.
So, that party will be able to take part in various activities even
if tomorrow.
Q: Won't it run counter legislation if that new integrated
party changes its name, as it will be an absolutely new party. You
have said already that they cannot register as a new party. What
will happen if they decide to keep their three brands in the new
name of that party?
Fokina: First, under existing legislation each political party
is free to choose its name. That is, it is their absolute right to
change the name of their party.
Second, we are saying that a political party discontinues its
activities and citizens having voluntarily expressed their desire to
become members of that other, different party, the party that
changed its name -- those citizens should apply and decisions are
made on granting them membership. It cannot happen automatically
like, say, we used to be members of the Party of Pensioners and then
automatically join the Motherland Party. The law does not allow
this. This will not be the case. Each citizen should express his
will to join that party in writing.
Moderator: Let me ask you a question on the organization which
calls itself a party, but is rather known for its scandalous moves.
I mean National Bolsheviks. What is their current status? Do they
have the right to hold public actions?
Fokina: Limonov's men, right? It is well known that Limonov's
men held congresses three times. They appealed to the Federal
Registration Service three times to request registration as a
political party, and those applications were rejected three times.
Let me explain so there would be no questions about it. There are no
political reasons behind those refusals to register it. They are
purely legal grounds.
Briefly, first, the lists they submitted failed to correspond
to the real situation 50 percent. That is, those individuals entered
on those lists actually did not exist. Their charter failed to
correspond to the requirements of Article 9 of the Federal Law On
Political Parties. You certainly know that they have called for
overthrowing the current system. That is, they are purely legal
issues.
There is no political party led by Limonov, nor has it ever
existed. When we read in the mass media "the Limonov party" -- this
has never been the case. Any party can be described as a party only
after it is officially registered by the state.
Besides, that organization does not exist even as a public
association. It might be possible to say that they have the right to
engage in certain activities as a public association, but they do
not exist as a public association either. Why so? They were really
registered as interregional citizens' organizations. But you know
that they were shut down by decision of the Supreme Court. And
liquidation means a ban on further activities without state
registration. And besides, they do not call themselves a citizens'
association, they call themselves a party. But under the law, they
cannot be a party. So, at present they are neither a citizens'
association nor a political party. It's just an interest club.
Q: You said that if these 16 parties which do not comply with
the law fail to make up their minds before January 1, 2007 they will
be liquidated and denied registration.
Fokina: Yes, the law says that if the party does not decide its
own fate before January 1, 2007 -- it may merge with some other
party or disband or transform itself -- then under the law the
supervisory agency has to take measures. And that means liquidation
in accordance with the law.
Moderator: And what about the "dead souls"?
Fokina: Yes, the party remains a party until it is shut down by
court decision or disbands of its own accord and until it is
stricken off the single state register. We have 2,000 party members
and one branch with at least 500 members. Obviously, it is not a
party, but it is officially a political party until a decision is
taken to liquidate it or strike it off their single register.
Moderator: So, then you go to court --
Fokina: Yes, only through the court.
Moderator: For each party.
Fokina: Yes.
Q: (Inaudible).
Fokina: Regarding the remaining 16 parties we have announced,
we have to submit the results of our audits. And I think that if we
get objections to the findings of our audits, we will thoroughly
consider them before January 1. That is the first task.
And we will gather information from political parties about
their decisions, whether they will disband or transform themselves
or merge with someone.
Q: How many foreign non-profit organizations have already been
registered?
Fokina: As of yesterday morning, there were 123 registered
branches and offices and another 67 are in the works, three have
been turned down and 23 sent back for reworking. And if you count in
today's results, about seven introduced in the register will be
added. I think as of today about 130 organizations will be put in
the register.
Q: And what were the grounds for withholding registration?
Fokina: Let me look at my notes because they have very
complicated names. For example, we withheld registration of the
Moscow branch of the International University of Azerbaijan, an
office of the Union for the Promotion of Youth Education and the
Establishment of Economic Contacts between North Germany and
Kaliningrad, and in brackets (the Hanseatic Bureau) and the office
of the registered Association of the Finnish-Russian Chamber of
Commerce. Three denials.
Q: And what were the grounds?
Fokina: Legal grounds. I'll tell you what grounds:
inaccuracies, discrepancies with the Charter of the Parent Foreign
NGO. There can be no other grounds.
Moderator: Any other questions? Thank you.
Copyright 2006 Federal News Service, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
[ Back To Homepage ]
|
Home
Featured Article Archives
eNews
RSS FEED
