The election to the regional bodies of government, due in Russia this coming Sunday, March 14th, is expected to prove more liberal and democratic. The expectation has been voiced by all political parties with no seats in parliament, the parties that have attended a roundtable discussion of the forthcoming voting. This time almost all political alliances have succeeded in avoiding problems while having the lists of their candidates registered.
This coming Sunday the residents of 76 Russian regions will cast their ballots in the election of regional parliaments, municipal legislative assemblies and city mayors as part of a Single voting day. The officials of political parties with no seats in parliament believe that this year's election campaign proved tougher than the previous one, in October last year, but was nonetheless more liberal. Curiously, the worst-hit has turned out to be the ruling party United Russia, while the least-affected was the opposition party The Right Cause. A member of the Political Council of The Right Cause party Boris Nadezhdin, visibly satisfied, says this in a comment:
"I've got an optimistic turn of mind, Boris Nadezhdin says, so I see the current situation as one that's a lot better than the election of October 11th last year. I still can't believe that all our candidates have been registered; no one has been struck off the list. The Right Cause has nominated candidates to run in the election of two regional legislatures, and also in the election of the bodies of local self-government in nine regions. We have registered a total of 250 candidates and therefore stand a very real chance of running for seats in regional parliaments and municipal assemblies. But if we come to witness major voting irregularities again, we will join hands with the Communists, which has been increasingly in vogue recently, and will take to the streets".
One reason for making elections more liberal is obviously the authorities' reaction to the criticism that both the general public and a number of political parties have levelled at the October 11th election last year.
Then three oppositional parties left a meeting of the State Duma (the lower house of parliament) protesting against numerous violations. By the way, these regional elections are the first elections held after the address of the President to the Federal assembly. In this address the president in particular voiced the plans to strengthen the national multi-party system and political competition. Chairman of the control commission of the Patriots of Russia party Evgeny Shevchenko stresses the importance of the law which simplifies the access of non-parliamentary parties to the regional governments:
"I think the main issue which should be solved is to provide equal rights to all participants of the elections. Our party, the Patriots of Russia has managed to collect more signatures from citizens than other parties at the regional elections but it was very hard and energy consuming process for us. The parliamentary parties are free form collecting signatures. This procedure should be abolished for all parties because it is out of date. If we speak about independent candidates they can still signatures for their support. By the way the current law allows also parliamentary parties collect signatures but none of them uses this right".
Just like at the previous elections, all seven political parties registered in Russia are taking part in the coming elections. Besides parliamentary parties such as Liberal Democratic party, the United Russia, The Fair Russia also non-parliamentary political forces such as Yabloko and the Patriots of Russia and the Right Cause parties registered their candidates. It is clear that many things in the life of common people depend on the local authorities and it is very important that today oppositional non-parliamentary parties are making competition to the large political parties on the regional level. This should effect the quality of future laws and the quality of life of Russian citizens.
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