Elections and referendums in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation: current issues and areas for improvement

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the system of elections and referendums in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation as component parts of a single federal state. The analysis of both federal and regional legislation on elections and referendums was made in the work. Not only the amendments to the existing normative legal acts of the Russian Federation and its subjects are offered, but also the introduction of new forms of direct democracy at the regional level - a referendum on changing the borders of the Russian Federation subjects and the improvement of the voting procedure for the recall of the regional government elected officials - is justified. Also, the article justifies the improvement of the legislative consolidation of the primaries procedure in the regional elections and the application of electronic democracy methods in the electoral process of the Russian regions