21 February 2004 03:46
RUSSIAN LIBERAL PARTY CALLS FOR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION BOYCOTT
MOSCOW, Feb 21 (ONASA/AFP) - A leading Russian liberal party called Saturday for a boycott of the March 14
presidential poll, in which an independent liberal candidate is standing against the overwhelmingly dominant President
Vladimir Putin. Putin is expected to sweep to victory, with none of his six struggling challengers believed likely to
pick up more than a few percent of the vote. Seventy-seven percent of the electorate will vote for the incumbent,
according to a poll published Saturday. "The conduct of the presidential election campaign has confirmed the
party's view that the elections have been turned into a political farce," a statement by the party's
ruling council said. "Yabloko considers it impossible to be involved in yet another imitation of democratic
procedures," reads the statement signed by Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky and posted on his website. "The
participants in this pseudo-democratic election do not have equal rights, the presidential candidates are ineffective
and even comic," the party charged. "In these circumstances, the only form of protest for people with
democratic beliefs is not to vote in the presidential elections," it concluded. Long-shot liberal contender Irina
Khakamada, who is from the liberal Union of Rightist Forces (SPS), is running in the poll despite not securing the
backing of her own party. She is forecast to win only two percent of the vote, in third place behind Putin and
independent nationalist candidate Sergei Glazyev, who will get three percent according to a opinion survey by the Romir
polling agency. The 48-year-old woman of Japanese origin has denied reports that the Kremlin persuaded her to run to
give the election a democratic fig leaf, insisting that she is participating to show that people still have a choice.
There are an estimated 10 million liberal supporters in Russia out of an electorate of more than 109 million
inhabitants. The state-dominated media's coverage of the campaign, which has given president Putin slavish
attention on government television channels, has drawn broad criticism from rights advocates and some Western
governments. Russian electoral authorities on Friday dismissed a protest by Khakamada and the opposition Communist
candidate about a live televised presidential address at the official launch of the election on February 12.
Russia's almost entirely state-run nationwide television also lavished exclusive attention to pro-Putin parties in
December parliamentary elections that saw the Kremlin take command of the chamber with a two-thirds majority.
[ONASA News Agency] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
