State registration of political parties and their regional offices: analysis of judicial practice

State registration of political parties and of their regional branches is one of the most important stages of the institutionalization of political parties in the political and legal frameworks. Political parties are entitled to participate in the elections only after the state registration in the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation and its local divisions. Taking into account recent changes in legislation on political parties, the article considers the provisions of the Federal law on political parties in the practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and courts of general jurisdiction, particularly the author considers the restrictive provisions on the minimal membership and number of regional branches of political parties, interdiction on ethno-national, confessional or regional political parties. Based on the analysis of cases and courts resolutions ordering suspension of activity and liquidation of political parties and their regional branches, the article shows the nature of existing laws and practice of impeding the political pluralism, and usage of prohibitive norms as a tool for hindering political developments. Almost all cases of suspension and liquidation of parties were initiated only on the ground of the minor faults or inobservance of purely formal requirements (insufficient number of party members and regional offices, insufficient number of registered regional branches of the party, failure to provide information about changing legal data, etc.).

About the author: Gulshat Aminova – Ph.D. student at the Department of constitutional and administrative law at National Research University – Higher School of Economics.

Citation: Aminova G. (2016) Gosudarstvennaya registratsiya politicheskikh partiy i ikh regionalnykh otdeleniy: analiz sudebnoy praktiki [State registration of political parties and their regional offices: analysis of judicial practice]. Sravnitel'noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, no. 1, pp. 121–137. (In Russian).

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