RIA Novosti: Russians Regain Right to Contest Election Results in Court

MOSCOW, April 2 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law Wednesday allowing Russian voters to contest the results of elections or referendums in court.

Under the 2012 amendments to a federal law on voting right guarantees, Russians lost the right to contest the results of elections in court. Russia’s highest court ruled Monday that these changes are illegal.

Russian voters can now demand that the court cancel the results of the election, if the violations were directly related to exercising their right to vote. The court can also decide to recount the votes if it finds that violations were made during the counting process.

The concept of a referendum, as a direct vote in which voters are asked to either accept or reject a proposal, was enshrined in Russian law in 1990.

Last month, over 96 percent of voters in Crimea supported reunification with Russia at a historic referendum, which Russian President Vladimir Putin said was in full compliance with the UN charter and international law.

Western powers have refused to recognize the Crimean vote results.

After Crimea, Catalonia, a region in northeastern Spain, also declared its right to self-determination. Spanish judges ruled in late March that the independence referendum in Catalonia was illegal.