The grand issue of the party combing launched by the Kremlin (chief of presidential administration Vladimir Surkov, right) is which party will replace Rodina of Dmitry Rogozin, left, in the next State Duma.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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Shifting to Party-Reduced System
Alexander Veshnyakov, who chairs the Central Election Commission, summed up yesterday the registration results for eight regional elections slated for one date, March 12, 2006. According to Veshnyakov, introduction of the uniform day for voting will show the existing structure and strength of the parties in new light.
It took the whole past year for Kremlin to set the stage for parties’ combing, as such action usually calls for some legislative foundation. The preparatory measures rose the minimal party strength from 10,000 to 50,000 members, authorized the Central Election Commission to get and check quarterly financial reports of the parties, banned creation of blocs, narrowed State Duma’s elections to the party lists and, of course, raised the passing score from 5 percent to 7 percent.
The better part of above innovations is yet to be tried. But there is one thing – introduction of the uniform day for voting – that has materially affected today’s elections in the regions. The necessity to hold eight parliamentary campaigns has split the existing parties of Russia (37 overall) into three unequal groups, Veshnyakov said.
The first group includes the giants of the party community with huge financial resources, including the state funding. They are parliamentary United Russia, Communist Party, LDPR and the Russian Pensioner Party, which is not represented in the State Duma but takes part in all eight regional campaigns. Seven more parties form the second group (including Russian Party of Life, Agrarian Party and Patriots of Russia). Those parties managed to cover from two to seven regions of Russia. The third group is the largest. Its members are the 26 outsiders, which proved able to put forward only one candidate or refrained from elections at all.
These words of Veshnyakov coupled with the more frequent cases of the parties withdrawal from the regional elections signal the Kremlin has launched its attack, the more so that the strength of above mentioned groups is completely in line with forecasts previously voiced by Veshnyakov.
Russia will have no more than 20 parties by 2007, Veshnyakov predicted some time earlier. Around 10 parties will run for the Duma with three or four of them ultimately passing to the lower house of Russia’s parliament.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 09, 2006
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