Russia’s court allows early parliamentary elections in 2016

Russia’s Constitutional Court has decided that it is possible to slightly reduce the term of the current State Duma to move the 2016 poll to a single elections day in September. The court noted, however, that this would be an extraordinary measure, according to media reports quoted by Interfax.

“The Constitution does not exclude the possibility of a one-time change to the federal law that would change the date of forthcoming parliamentary elections and reduce the real term of powers of the current State Duma convocation under the condition that such a reduction is made for the sake of some constitutionally important objectives,” the deputy chairman of the Constitutional Court, Sergey Mavrin, announced Wednesday. The judge emphasized in his statement that the change of the elections date was an extraordinary measure.

The statement came in reply to a request from the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, that asked the Constitutional Court to rule on if it was possible to move the 2016 parliamentary elections from early December to the third Sunday in September – the universal elections day. The request was made after the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, on June 19 gave a first reading to a bill ordering the change of poll date.

The court verdict also detailed the conditions under which such move was possible: it must be a one-off, reduce the terms of lawmakers’ powers by a few months at most, and must not interrupt the work of the State Duma or the length of parliamentary terms in general. It also stated that the rescheduling should be announced well in advance so that all political parties had time to prepare for the polls and that the principle of political competition was not violated.