All the 14 administrative regions of Russia’s Far Eastern federal district started to vote on amendments to the Russian constitution, on Thursday.
Russia’s easternmost regions of Kamchatka and Chukotka were the first to begin the vote, which will be held over a seven-day period across the country ending on July 1.
On March 11, the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) approved the final reading of the constitutional amendments bill proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On the same day, it was approved by the Russian Federation Council (upper house of parliament) and Russia’s regional parliaments.
The text of the bill was published on the official legal information portal.
If over 50 per cent of the Russian public approve of the changes, the bill will enter into force, reports TASS News Agency.
The vote was initially set to take place on April 22, however, Putin chose to postpone it due to the situation with the spread of the novel coronavirus in Russia.
The document proposes to expand the powers of Parliament and the Constitutional Court, a fixed number of presidential terms, as well as the prevalence of the Russian Constitution over international agreements.
The document also expands the government’s obligations in the social sphere.
The amendments to the Constitution stipulate that the Russian head of state can only serve two terms, however, one of the amendments proposes that the current president can be re-elected, if the new version of the Constitution comes into force.
Although Russian President Vladimir Putin has not explicitly announced his desire to run for a new presidential term, the proposed amendments allow him to do so. This is because, the amendments open a new constitutional era that do not take the previous presidential terms into consideration, reports KUNA.
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