Alexander Kynev and his book on election problems in Russian regions

Introduction of elections under party lists leads in Russian regions to a serious impingement of citizens' election rights. Ingushetia is in the lead in this aspect. This is the conclusion made by Alexander Kynev, a political scientist and expert of the association in defence of voters' rights named "Golos" (Vote), in his 500-page book "Elections of Parliaments of Russian Regions in 2003-2009".

Presentation of Mr Kynev's detailed research dedicated to introduction in the 2000s in Russian regions of the proportional (by party lists) electoral system, took place in the evening on December 17 in the Moscow Carnegie Centre to some three dozens of leading Russian experts in the sphere of electoral technologies and several democratic politicians.

"The transition of regional elections into the mixed system (by party lists and single-mandate election constituencies) went hand in hand with a permanent reduction of political competition - decrease of the count of political parties and constant improvement of manipulation technologies used by the authorities," Alexander Kynev said at the presentation.

According to the author's conclusions, the above electoral reform leads to stronger indirect control of state bureaucracy over the deputies corps of the country through control over the partisan bureaucracy.