14 October 2016
On 18 September 2016, parliamentary elections were held in the Russian
Federation. In violation of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution
68/262, Parliamentary Assembly Resolutions 1990 (2014), 2034 (2015), 2063
(2015), numerous decisions of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, the
Russian parliamentary elections were organised by the occupational authorities
in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine – the Autonomous Republic of
Crimea and the city of Sebastopol.
In its Resolution 2132 (2016) on political consequences of the Russian
aggression in Ukraine the Assembly condemns the illegal Duma elections held on
18 September in occupied Crimea and considers their results null and void.
The elections in the occupied Crimea are not in line with the Council of
Europe principles for the following reason: the Duma consists of 450 members of
which 225 were elected in accordance with the plurality voting system, with 4 members “elected” in the occupied Crimea. Their mandates are
illegal and illegitimate.
Another half of the parliament was elected on the proportional basis, hence
it is not possible to clearly identify those deputies who were elected in
Crimea, that is why the entire second half of the Russian Parliament is also to
be considered illegal and illegitimate.
Proceeding from the international law principle “ex injuria jus non oritur”
and taking into account the fact that ever since the creation of the Council of
Europe, there has been no precedent of elections in occupied territories or in
“frozen conflict” zones that has a direct impact on the legitimacy of the
representative body of a member State, the Assembly finds it necessary to draw
up a comprehensive report on the matter and propose recommendations in this
regard.
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