Home > 5.1 Nature of the referendum > RUSSIAN FEDERATION - Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Right of Citizens to Participate in a Referendum
 
 
 
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Article 12
 
Article 12. Referendum IssuesQuestions
1. IssuesQuestions to be submitted to a referendum of the Russian Federation and issuesquestions which are not to be submitted to a referendum of the Russian Federation shall be specified by a federal constitutional law.
2. IssuesQuestions may be submitted to a referendum of a subject of the Russian Federation only if they are within the jurisdiction of the subject of the Russian Federation, or within joint jurisdiction of the Russian Federation and subjects of the Russian Federation, provided such issues questions are not regulated by the Constitution of the Russian Federation or a federal law.
3. Only issues questions of local significance may be submitted to a local referendum.
4. The constitutions (charters), laws of subjects of the Russian Federation, the charters of municipalities may define issuesquestions that are subject to mandatory submission ttal to a referendum of the subject of the Russian Federation or a local referendum.
5. IssuesQuestions submitted to a referendum shall not restrict or abolish generally recognized human and civil rights and constitutional guarantees for the realization thereof.
6. The issues questions submitted to a referendum of a subject of the Russian Federation, a local referendum shall not conflict with the legislation of the Russian Federation. IssuesQuestions submitted to a local referendum shall not conflict with the legislation of the Russian Federation Russian Federation and the legislation of the relevant subject of the Russian Federation.
7. A referendum issue question shall be worded formulated in such manner so as to preclude any possibility of its multiple interpretations, i.e. so that only an unambiguous answer can be given to it, and also so as to rule out any ambiguity of the legal consequences of the decision made adopted at the referendum.
8. The following issues questions shall not be submitted to a referendum of a subject of the Russian Federation or a local referendum:
?) early termination, prolongation, suspension of powers of bodies of state power of the subject of the Russian Federation or bodies of local self-government; and holding of early elections to elections of bodies of state power of the subject of the Russian Federation, bodies of local self-government or postponement of the said elections;
b) personal membership of bodies of state power of the subject of the Russian Federation and bodies of local self-government;
c) election of deputies or officials; approval or appointment or removal of officials; consent to appointment or removal of such officials;
d) adoption or amendment of an existing budget; fulfillment or modification of financial commitments of the subject of the Russian Federation or the municipality;
e) adoption of extraordinary and urgent measures to ensure health and security of the population.
9. No restrictions shall be established for issuesquestions to be submitted to a referendum other than those set forth in this article.