MOSCOW, March 1 - RAPSI. President Vladimir Putin has submitted a bill on a mixed electoral system to the State Duma, the lower house of parliament told RAPSI.

The president's previous bill on this has been withdrawn, a parliament representative said.

According to the new bill, half the 450 seats in the State Duma will be filled using a proportional system based on votes for parties, with each party then filling its allotted seats. The other half will be filled by the direct election of individual candidates (single-candidate system), creating a potential opening for independent campaigns.
Candidates are nominated by parties, or can nominate themselves.

Parties will continue to enter non-members (up to 50% of the total) in their election lists. Party lists must include a non-obligatory group of up to 10 federal candidates and also candidates from several regional groups.

The number of candidates elected based on party lists will be cut from 450 to 225.

Accordingly, the permitted number of candidates on the parties' election lists will be cut from 600 to between 200 and 300, and the smallest admissible number of regional groups will be reduced from 70 to 35.

The boundaries of single-candidate districts will be approved every 10 years.

The election districts will be created based on the approved standards of representation.

Under new laws which extended both the terms of Duma members and the president, Russia's next parliamentary election is scheduled for December 2016, while the next presidential election will be in March 2018.