On October 2, 2014, the Progress Party gained the right to take part in elections by submitting to the Ministry of Justice registration documents for 44 regional branches.
After the documents are filed, the Ministry of Justice must enter us into the register of parties entitled to participate in elections. Clause 2 of Article 36 of the law "On Political Parties" says exactly that: all that is required is to submit 43+ certificates to the Ministry of Justice. That’s it—no other documents are needed, no confirmations from the Ministry of Justice, the Central Election Commission, the Moscow City Election Commission, or even Sportloto (a Soviet-era state lottery, used here sarcastically), and there is no mention of six months or court proceedings either. Lawyers call this a notification-based procedure for obtaining the right. Submit the paperwork, and the right to participate in elections already exists—from the next day.
We decided not to waste any time and to enter the very first election available after filing our documents. The Progress Party’s first campaign became the by-election for a seat in the city council of Reutov, in the Moscow Region. We have an excellent candidate who lives in the city—Anna Korchmar. On October 28, we submitted our documents to the somewhat bewildered Reutov election commission, which, frankly, did not know what to do with us. Once all the formalities were settled, we began campaigning.
Given how short the campaign is, we started by raising the candidate’s profile among voters in Reutov’s District No. 14 and informing them about the December 21 election. Ahead of the coming weekend, the campaign team worked on preparing a leaflet and a large, eye-catching poster for street campaigning, and on finding a print shop accredited by the election commission—though, incidentally, none existed. Even so, despite the extreme time pressure, we managed to get everything printed.
But here too, nothing turned out to be simple. Apparently, the Constitution and federal laws do not apply in Reutov—pickets and any other public events are banned by the local administration. We have already received well over twenty refusals. We will, of course, challenge this idiotic ban with the prosecutor’s office and in court. For now, though, we have decided to use roll-up banners instead of full campaign cubes—quick-assembly vertical stands with a poster.
The first roll-up banner stood for 30 minutes before a police officer approached it and said, "Solo pickets are also banned in Reutov." Our campaigner was detained and taken to the police station. After a brief educational conversation with the Reutov police and a complaint about obstruction of an election campaign, the officers became wiser, our volunteer was released, and we had no further problems with them.
The results of four weekend days: we distributed our leaflet to almost every mailbox in the electoral district. People have started recognizing Anna, our candidate, on the street—and no wonder: she has personally already visited a third of the homes in the district.
Our plan for the next few days is to submit to the Reutov election commission the 22 voter signatures we have collected—which is exactly the number required to register a candidate—in order to complete the document package for registering Anna as a candidate for the Reutov city council.
The main political question of this election remains the same: will the Progress Party be allowed to take part? The local Ministry of Justice is wavering, hesitating, and worrying. We will see how the election commission tries to wriggle out of this—the law is entirely on our side.
P.S. Don’t forget to vote for the introduction of the concept of "illicit enrichment" into the Criminal Code. This is one of the Progress Party’s most important demands.