Servicemen’s suffrage: the historical background and contemporary challenges

The general suffrage principle became an axiom for the Russian legal system long ago. As well as the recognition of Fatherland protection for the Russian Federation citizen as a debt and a duty became the same constitutional truth. The article reveals the interrelation of a citizen legal status as a voter, a candidate for an elective office and a serviceman in a historical retrospective. The author’s examples personify primacy of the society military status at the state building early stages in relation to the suffrages (the electoral status), a successful combination of these statuses within many centuries, and the open contradiction – in some cases.

Considering the democratic country leaderships interested in the army political apathy, it is important to find optimum balance between a legislative principle of servicemen non-interference in a policy and their full suffrages realization as citizens. In the modern Russia service men are vested in all suffrages; thus the special attention is traditionally given to warranting their active suffrage. If a service man lives within a military unit or is registered appropriately at a military unit in a service place, he possesses the active suffrage in a place of such registration and with hardly any trouble at all participates in all elections - federal, regional, municipal. However, there is a category of service men who for a long time have not participated in elections in the Russian Federation public authorities and in local governments. They are the military schools cadets who have signed the contract, and kept (frequently by force) registration in a residence at their "houses". Thereby, the citizen’s military status can belittle his status as the voter. The author scrutinizes the standard reasons of such problem and offers possible ways to overcome it.

The current Russian legislation gives servicemen along with other Russian Federation citizens the possibility to be the elite in public authorities and local governments without any restrictions. However, consequences of the passive suffrage realization are outlined by the inconsistent legal formulas that need prompt specification.

Keywords

Constitution of the Russian Federation, elections, universal suffrage, servicemen, cadets, the electoral status, the military status, Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation

Received

19.08.2019

Publication date

20.09.2019

Number of characters

48200

Cite

GOST	Viskulova V. Servicemen’s suffrage: the historical background and contemporary challenges // Gosudarstvo i pravo – 2019. – Issue 8 C. 31-42 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://gospravo-journal.ru/S013207690006240-6-1 (circulation date: 26.04.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S013207690006240-6
MLA	Viskulova, Victoriya "Servicemen’s suffrage: the historical background and contemporary challenges." Gosudarstvo i pravo 8 (2019):31-42. DOI: 10.31857/S013207690006240-6
APA	Viskulova V. (2019). Servicemen’s suffrage: the historical background and contemporary challenges. Gosudarstvo i pravo (8), pp.31-42 DOI: 10.31857/S013207690006240-6

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