The lower house of the Russian parliament on Friday passed a bill making it easier for smaller political parties to get their representatives into regional assemblies.
The bill was drawn up following proposals put forward by President Dmitry Medvedev during his state-of-the-nation address last November. He said the changes were intended to create "free, fair and civilized competition between parties."
Russian electoral law provides the country's regions with the right to set a minimum electoral barrier for political parties. The barrier, however, should not exceed 7%.
The amendment stipulates that in regions with a minimum electoral barrier exceeding 5%, a party that garners 5% or more in local parliamentary polls but fails to pass the minimum level, receives one seat in local legislatures.
If a party gains less than 5% of the vote, it does not make it into a parliament.
Parties that get one seat in local legislatures also receive the right to free airtime on state and municipal TV channels, along with other parties.
The parties are also allowed to take part in local polls without collecting the set number of signatures.
The amendment also frees those political parties with representatives in one third of Russia's regions of the necessity to collect signatures to run for the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament. Representatives of these parties are also no longer required to collect signatures to run for president.
MOSCOW, February 26 (RIA Novosti)
