State Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov speaks in favor of keeping the 5% threshold for parties at the forthcoming 2003 elections to the State Duma (Lower House), the Speaker said answering the questions of the press.
Gennady Seleznyov expressed his negative opinion of the "United Russia" party's initiative to introduce a 12.5% threshold for parties running for the State Duma.
However, he believes that 6 or 7% threshold can be considered as an alternative. "But in any case, not the 12.5% threshold," emphasized the State Duma Speaker. At the same time he noted that "he knew no other country in the world with such a high electoral threshold." Regarding the initiative of the "Russian Regions" groups representative, Vladimir Lysenko, who proposed to reduce the threshold for parties running for the State Duma to 3%, Gennady Seleznyov said that "it was another alternative." Gennady Seleznyov noted that "all the innovations" to the electoral law "were possible, but not during the 2003 State Duma elections." "With one year to go before the elections it wouldn't do to consider changes to the threshold for running for the State Duma," he pointed out.
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.