According to new amendments introduced by the Russian parliament, regional governors in Russia will be allowed to serve only two terms in a row, and their terms will be counted only from the year 2012. In 2012, direct gubernatorial elections were reintroduced in Russia, replacing a system where the president appointed governors.
According to the newspaper Vedomosti, all factions of the parliament agreed to amendments prohibiting governors from serving more than two terms in a row. The amendments state that if a governor was appointed to his or her post by the president, and was then elected after gubernatorial elections were reintroduced, then the term served following the election will be counted as the governor’s “first” term. The terms served by appointment from the president will not be counted towards the two permitted terms.
It is expected that the amendments will be passed before the end of the spring session of parliament.
According to Dmitry Badovskiy of the Institute of Socio-Economic and Political Research, the current formulation [of the law] allows for various interpretations of the point in time from which to count gubernatorial terms, and this bill is meant to take away the possibility for dual interpretations.
From 2005 to 2012, Russian governors (heads of regions) were appointed by the president. From 2012, direct gubernatorial elections were reintroduced. Later, regional authorities could replace direct elections with elections through local electoral counselors.
The new version of the law states that all governors can serve a maximum of two terms in a row, both in the event that regional laws call for direct elections, and in the event of election through local electoral counselors.