The State Duma of the Russian Federation is a chamber of the Federal Assembly. In Russia, it is the highest legislative body. The final composition of the State Duma is elected by popular vote, the term of parliamentary powers is 5 years.
Who is in parliament
The powers of the
deputies of the State Duma of the VII convocation entered into force on September 18, 2016. On that day, nationwide elections were held, which determined the composition of the State Duma both from party lists and single-member districts.
Voter turnout was almost 48 percent. Parties to get to the federal parliament needed to get 5 percent of the vote. To win in a single-mandate constituency, it was enough to gain a simple majority.
The Central Election Commission allowed 14 political parties to participate in the elections. These are regular participants in all elections - United Russia, the Communist Party, the Liberal Democratic Party, Fair Russia, and Yabloko. Recently emerging political forces - Civic Platform, Civic Force, Greens, Patriots of Russia, Rodina, and the Russian Party of Pensioners for Justice. The political forces that have recently joined the struggle for deputy seats are the Communists of Russia, the Growth Party, and the extremely opposition party Parnassus.
As a result of the vote count, only four parties overcame the 5 percent barrier. The State Duma included United Russia, which gained more than 54 percent of the vote, the Communist Party and the Liberal Democratic Party took second and third place, gaining 13 percent and a little, and Fair Russia took the fourth place with a score of 6.22%.
The composition of the State Duma of the Russian Federation was also formed by the deputies who won in single-member districts. In addition to parties that have passed the 5 percent barrier, representatives of the "Motherland", "Civil Platform" and one self-nominated candidate were in the Duma.
Parliament structure
The fundamental link in the structure of the State Duma is its apparatus. Its functions include legal and
organizational support for the activities of people's deputies. As well as work with documents, analytics, assessment of information, financial, material and technical conditions, providing social conditions for deputies. The first head of the apparatus was Andrei Voikov in 1994. Now this position is occupied by
Jakhan Pollyeva. Despite the fact that a new composition of the State Duma was elected, she retained her post.
An important role belongs to the chairman of the State Duma. He is responsible for establishing interaction with other branches of government - judicial and executive. In the first convocation, the Parliament was led by Ivan Rybkin, now this post is held by Vyacheslav Volodin.
The main bodies of the federal parliament that take part in the legislative process are the committees of the State Duma. Their composition is formed according to the proportional principle: how many deputies from parties are members of the State Duma, in the same proportion they will be represented in committees.
All issues that are subsequently included in the agenda of the Duma meetings are initially discussed in the relevant commissions. Now in the Duma there are commissions on legal support, on the budget and construction, and many others.
The function of planning the work of Parliament is entrusted to the Council of the State Duma. He is also required to complete the development of bills for the next sittings of the lower house.
List of deputy associations
In each convocation, deputies exercise their right to form associations in factions, as well as groups. At the same time, inter-factional associations and independent parliamentarians work periodically.
Exotic deputy associations existed from the first to the fourth convocation. For example, Anti-NATO or Women's Groups.
The current composition of deputies of the State Duma at present has formed fractions in accordance with the party affiliation of the deputies consisting of them. The same situation developed in the Duma of the last three convocations. Independent groups and coalitions go down history over time.
Rights and obligations
The duties of the elected representatives of the State Duma for parties and single-mandate constituencies are spelled out in federal law. They are divided into two groups.
The first includes those that a parliamentarian is required to carry out directly in the State Duma.
These are oral appeals to members of the government, the Prosecutor General and other senior officials, speeches at sessions and meetings, participation in the work of Duma committees and commissions.
In his constituency, the deputy is obliged to apply to all kinds of state bodies, organizations and enterprises upon citizens' appeals to him and to seek answers. The elected official is free to accept officials, and he also has the right to receive and disseminate information if it is not particularly closed.
What are deputies not required to do?
Despite the fact that the law lists not only the rights, but also the duties of the parliamentarian, one, which is very obvious, is not among them. It is an obligation to attend meetings of the State Duma.
The absence of this norm in the law is fraught with the fact that disciplinary measures are not applicable to the so-called truant deputies. Unlike Russian legislation, in the practice of foreign states the status of a deputy is prescribed in more detail, and much attention is paid to penalties that can be applied to the people's deputy in case of failure to fulfill his direct duties.
Features of the State Duma of the VII convocation
The main feature of the State Duma of the new convocation is that for the first time in modern Russian history, one of the parties represented in parliament has a constitutional majority. That is two-thirds of the seats in parliament.
According to the election results, United Russia won 343 seats in the lower house out of 450. This means that deputies of this party can pass any laws without the support of representatives of other political forces. After all, there are fewer members of other parties. There are only 42 Communists, 39 Liberal Democrats and 23 members of Just Russia in the State Duma.