In March fourteen regions of Russian Federation are holding local legislative elections. However, in a several regions two of the opposition liberal parties – Union of Right Forces and Yabloko (Apple) – have been barred from fielding candidates. The leaders of the said parties have already filed a suit against officials’ actions because as they claim the Elections Commission’s rejection is unfounded. Moreover, they believe the party in power has been controlling activities of elections commissions, wishing to liquidate possible rivals in the upcoming elections. (10-FEB-07)
Text: HRH/Moscow, by Yanina Savenko. Sources: rg.ru, gazeta.ru, novayagazeta.ru, sps.ru. Photos: vzglyad.ru, novayagazeta.ru
The Union of Right Forces (URF) party wasn’t registered in five regions – Vologda, Pskov, Tumen, Samara and Dagestan. “We have every reason to believe that Elections Commissions’ decision to cut URF out of elections were made under pressure of high-ranking officials and also of State Duma (Russian Parliament) deputies from United the Russian Federation party”, said URF leader Nikita Belykh. According to Belykh, groups of activists had been actively working in regions; they conduct special meetings with Elections Commission members and local lawyers, where they discuss how to shut URF out of the vote. Besides, “By egoistic actions aimed at weakening parliamentary opposition United the Russian Federation has been provoking increase of extremism and violence in the country”, added Belykh. Meanwhile, analytics believe the contest will serve as a dress rehearsal for the officials conducting State Duma elections scheduled for December.
Election committees use any persecution means
In Pskov region URF was banned from taking part in the regional elections because another party – the regional 
office of the United Socialistic Party of the Russian Federation (USPR) – submitted to the Elections Commission a record implying that two of the candidates from URF, allegedly, are also members of USPR. Belykh stressed that these were just some papers but not the official registration form. “Just as well they could have written that Belykh is also a USPR member”, he said. Another candidate was excluded from the URF list because he had lost his high-school diploma, although he had a paper from archives proving he had received the degree. According to URF, in Vologda two candidates, being under pressure and threatened, were forced to drop out. They later re-confirmed their desire to run, but the Elections Commission refused to examine their new applications. Furthermore, the candidates were not informed about an official meeting held by the Commission half an hour prior. As a result, URF candidates were late for the meeting and the party was barred from running in Vologda Parliament. Samara elections commission ruled that there was a lack of documents and the party list couldn’t be registered. The commission hasn’t even explained which documents were lacking.
«Pressure on Yabloko is increasing, becoming more impertinent»
“In all regions where Yabloko takes part in elections, the party has been subject to undisguised and illegal pressure by the authorities, who have been using all means of persecution – from ban on publishing any party materials in regional mass media to open threats and blackmail toward party members and candidates”, said Grigoriy Yavlinskiy, leader of Yabloko. Thus, Yabloko has been banned from taking part in elections in St. Petersburg, Dagestan, Pskov and Orel regions. The Orel elections commission prejudiced 100 from 13500 signatures and didn’t register the Yabloko list. In Dagestan the whole regional list of the party was shut out of registration, because of one of the candidate’s age.
Two parties loving President
Only four parties managed to get successfully registered in regions where the registration is over: the Pro-Kremlin United the Russian Federation and Fair the Russian Federation parties, and the opposition Liberal Democratic and Communist parties. Recently created by Kremlin, Fair the Russian Federation is rapidly expanding. “Kremlin has created a second party of power in order to imitate a two-party system – left-wing and right-wing parties – and to do away with everything which had grown itself out of establishment during the last several years. Now the displeased functionaries know where they are allowed to go over. Kremlin created a possibility to quarrel within the framework of the system (regime). It’s a simple idea, but it’s the dangerous idea for the country”, said Grigoriy Yavlinskiy.
