Nezavisimaya Gazeta
Radical opposition forced to vote
The Central Election Commission (CEC) has formally banned the radical opposition from excluding themselves from voter lists. This is CEC Chairman Vladimir Churov's response to opposition allegations that the elections are unfair and have a foregone conclusion. Sergei Udaltsov, coordinator of the Left Front, intends to appeal the decision in court and activists from the Left Front, Solidarity, Working Russia and other movements have all filed complaints with the CEC. Udaltsov said that the opposition's only remaining recourse is taking to the streets, that the opposition would protest the current elections on December 4 and that he believes protesters will number in the thousands.
Udaltsov also said the law strictly regulates the grounds for exclusion from the voter list. These include de-registration of residence or termination of Russian citizenship, conscription, serving prison sentences, as well as recognition that the individual is incapacitated or dead. No other grounds are stipulated.
"What about people who do not want to vote for any of the parties?" asks Udaltsov. "The 'None of the Above' field has been dropped, the attendance barrier has been lifted and now we cannot exclude ourselves from the voting lists."
"The opposition simply has no more legal recourse to challenge the way the authorities are simulating elections," Udaltsov added. "They have created a voting system that is very comfortable for them and is totally oblivious to the actual attitudes of the public. They do not care that this violates the Constitution."
Andrei Buzin, chairman of the Interregional Association of Voters, is convinced that the elections are not free and that voters' rights have been violated: "Free elections mean having alternatives of various different political parties with various different convictions."
"If a voter does not want to vote as a matter of principle, he can stay away from the polls or spoil his ballot," said Buzin. "However, if the main goal is protest, it is best to come and vote for any party except the party that organized the elections - United Russia."
"A significant part of society feels aggrieved and disappointed, they have no one to choose from," said Alexei Makarkin, deputy director of the Center for Political Technologies. "Those who do not like any of the seven parties can just stay away from the polls or spoil their ballot. Personally, I would vote for a liberal party. However, I'm not sure that Yabloko will be able to overcome the seven percent barrier, and Right Cause is frankly just a Kremlin project."
Makarkin added that the current electoral system has come into conflict with concept of "free will." He is convinced that the elimination of the "None of the Above" field was premature: "If there were still such a field, then I would vote against all."
He said that every voter should have his or her own party, however small, so as not to feel slighted.
Moskovskiye Novosti
Authorities mull permission for 15,000-strong Russian March in Moscow
City Hall has withheld approval for the Russian March planned for November 2011 after having sanctioned two nationalist rallies in southeastern Lyublino district in previous years.
The organizers say the request was turned down over a pure technicality. "Since we planned to organize a concert, we applied for a cultural event, not a rally," said movement leader Dmitry Dyomushkin. "But our official request included a reference to the law on meetings and pickets, so they bounced us over to a different department. The officials also refused to approve an amended request, although they seemed to have no problem with the location or the number of participants."
The organizers of this year's rally "for the rights and freedoms of Russia's native population" and "for recognizing ethnic Russians' state-forming role" proposed three routes with a concert of ultra-right musicians to be held in a key area in the city center.
Now they may as well scrap their plans for a concert, because applications for cultural events are accepted at least a month before the date. To hold a march, the nationalists will have to rewrite their request and resubmit it two weeks before the event.
Lyublino is unlikely to be a problem with us, Dyomushkin said, placidly referring to the location of the past two years' marches. "But the officials still have to solve a little problem, because we have announced a 15,000 strong rally this year, while that area will not accommodate more than 5,000, the number the event attracted in previous years. Locations in the city center are much larger," he said.
It seems crucial that the authorities prevent the nationalists from marching across the city center and holding a concert, to avoid greater repercussions, said Vera Alperovich from the Sova analysis center. The government was predictably concerned by the last two ultra-right rallies on October 1, both of which ended in violent clashes with riot police and several arrests.
The few hundred who gathered on Shevchenko Embankment spontaneously moved closer to the city center shouting extremist slogans against immigrants and tried to reach the government building. Another group, gathered in a central square to commemorate soccer fan Yury Volkov killed in a clash last year, were detained for provocation against a gay group also holding a rally nearby.
The nationalists are trying to use another case, that of CSKA fan Andrei Uryupin killed in a brawl by a national of Azerbaijan, to escalate tensions and spark a repeat of last year's unrest in Manezh Square. "The authorities might want to play safe," Alperovich said.
Mikhail Vinogradov, head of the St. Petersburg Politics Foundation, believes this could be a pre-election decision. "Any nationalist rhetoric is taboo during election campaigns," he said. "Even more moderate groups, like Dmitry Rogozin's Congress of Russian Communities, are facing restrictions. Rogozin failed to get into parliament. Russian Marches may be given green light again once this control is relaxed after the elections," he added.
RIA Novosti is not responsible for the content of outside sources.
