"If parties have full freedom of recall, they may carry the matter too far, so to discredit the entire election system," he said while in conference with Russian political parties' activists in reply to a Liberal Democratic initiative. The Liberal Democratic Party conference spokesman was demanding such a right for party leaders.
"I'll never back the idea," snapped Mr. Veshnyakov. "If it comes true, it will spell the end of whatever democracy within parties, with no opportunity for discussions. It is inadmissible to allow political parties to recall their dissenter MPs."
As Mr. Veshnyakov sees it, parliamentarians who got their seats on party tickets may be recalled only when shifting to another parliamentary group.
As the commission's Evgeni Kolyushin took the floor, he reminded political parties' pre-election campaign debts. The parties who scored less than 2 per cent votes each at the latest parliamentary election, of December 7, 2003, owe the mass media a lump exceeding 500 million roubles, roughly US$17 million.
As the Russian election law has it, such outsider parties and election blocs reimburse air time and press publications, to which they are entitled free during pre-election campaigns, to the government-financed press and television and radio companies.
A total fourteen parties and blocs were owing a lump 530 million roubles, of which they have paid, for now, a token 17 to 18 million, according to unofficial statistics, said Mr. Kolyushin.
Such parties and blocs as do not pay for their telecasts will have no free access to the television and the press for the nearest parliamentary campaign. That's the law, he stressed.
As for parties who came over a 3 per cent threshold in the latest election are legally entitled to government grants, said Elena Dubrovina, another commission member. Thus, the United Russia-present-day parliamentary majority-is expected to receive 11 million roubles, the Communist Party 3.8 million, the YABLOKO 1.3 million, and the Union of Right Forces 1.2 million, even though the latter two failed to leap a 5 per cent threshold for any parliamentary seats.
