Russia's central election commissioner says the ‘municipal filter’ is killing political competition

A procedure known as the “municipal filter” (which requires people seeking candidacy for mayoral office to collect endorsements from 5-10 percent of their local city council members) is undermining Russia’s political competition, according to none other than Ella Pamfilova, the country’s central election commissioner. At a conference on August 29, Pamfilova accused unnamed officials of abusing administrative resources to “keep out inconvenient, competitive candidates.” She says her office, Russia’s Central Election Commission, is unfortunately unable to respond to these abuses, but she plans to raise the issue at a future meeting with a Kremlin working group.

Could Pamfilova’s criticism lead to reforms?

Not likely. Known as one of Russia’s “first-wave democrats,” Ella Pamfilova was appointed in March 2016 to serve as central election commissioner, replacing Vladimir Churov, who presided over a collapse of public confidence in the agency. Pamfilova has spent her career advocating human rights and promoting nongovernmental organizations, but never radically.

As Vladimir Putin’s human rights commissioner, she broached subjects like Syria War veterans’ rights and Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov’s violent threats, but as head of the federal election commission, she sanctioned the government’s refusal in December 2017 to register Alexey Navalny’s presidential candidacy. Whatever becomes of her push against the municipal filter, she’s not wrong that it diminishes Russia’s political competition. It’s also quite humiliating for the candidates, as you’ll learn in Meduza’s special report from Moscow this June.