Russians Say Go Back To Old Rules - Poll

According to a new poll, a majority of Russians want to see the election reforms put in by Vladimir Putin reversed.

Back in 2004 Putin signed a law that took selection of the governors of Russia's 83 regions out of the hands of the voters and put it into his. Putin's argument was that direct appointment of local governors was the only way to fight widespread corruption in some of Russia's far-flung regions, and that some governors rigged their elections meaning the voters had no way of ousting them (an ironic claim since Putin himself has been accused of meddling in a number of Russia's recent elections).

At the time, there was little protest over the change from within Russia, even though governments in Europe and the United States called it another sign of the decline of Russian democracy. But now, according to a poll by the Levada Center, 57% of those surveyed want to go back to electing their governors, complaining that the Kremlin-picked ones only care about pleasing Moscow, not their local constituents.

In a separate question, 42%, a plurality of those responding, want changes to another Putin-backed law that ended the direct election of members of the national parliament. In 2007 the law was changed so that all the seats in the Duma are distributed on the basis of what percentage of the vote a particular party receives (assuming they get more than 7% of the total, less than that and they get no seats at all). Previously, half the seats were distributed on a party-basis, while the other half were elected directly.

But the party-distribution model has been criticized as ineffective. Whether the public mood results in more changes to the election law remains to be seen.