Special for YABLOKO’s web-site by Ksenia Vakhrusheva
Alexander Gudimov, President of the St.Petersburg branch of
the Youth YABLOKO and Ksenia Vakhrusheva, International Officer
of the St.Petersburg branch of the Youth YABLOKO, took part
in the annual General Assembly of the International Federation
of Liberal Youth, held on 12-15 November in the Hague, the
Netherlands. The GA joined together over130 young liberals
from 35 countries, who are ready to stand for liberal values
in there home countries and in the world, who shared their
experience.
The key points of the agenda were elections of the new executive
board, voting for amendments to the Manifesto and resolutions.
Representative of the Dutch Young Democrats (the youth organization
of the political party D66 in the Netherlands) was elected
President of IFLRY for the next two years. Other Bureau members
were also elected: General Secretary (representative of Young
Liberals of Germany), four Vice-Presidents (representatives
of liberal youth movements of Spain, Norway, Lebanon and Costa-Rica),
Treasurer and two Auditors.
Discussions of amendments to the Manifesto were unexpectedly
hot. Representatives of social-liberal and libertarian movements
tried to find a consensus about economic and social policies
of the countries till midnight. However, needed wordings which
had satisfied everyone were found and a new version of the
Manifesto was approved by the absolute majority of votes.
Elections of the board were also very important, approval
of the resolutions demonstrated the stance of the international
youth liberal community on the vital problems in the countries
and the world in general. On the initiative of Youth Yabloko
the General Assembly developed and adopted a resolution on
condemning elections fraud in Russia. The resolution was approved
by a majority.
Resolution condemning fraudulent elections in Russia
The International Federation of Liberal Youth notes and is
deeply concerned about the fraudulent election results in
Russia. Russian elections do no longer reflect the actual
view of the citizens.
The recent elections held on 11th of October 2009, including
the elections to the Moscow city Duma, are perfect examples
of this fraudulence. As a result of mass falsifications (“inconvenient”
candidates being denied the right to run, ballot-stuffing,
voting by the same people in different polling stations, rewriting
the election results protocols, removal of observers etc.)
only two very similar political parties entered the Duma –
the present ruling party “United Russia” and the former ruling
party in the USSR – the Communist Party.
The International Federation of Liberal Youth is concerned
about the fact that each year the democratic procedure of
voting is brought further into absolute discredit. Election
fraud has become a common and not surprising fact, and fraudsters
– members of the election committees, having realized their
obvious impunity - rig elections more and more openly. As
an example, during the elections of the mayor of Derbent,
most voters could not reach 13 out of 36 polling stations,
while in other polling stations only voters loyal to the present
mayor and United Russia were allowed to vote. Major violations
of voting rights also took place in the Tulskaya region: from
manipulations with mobile ballot boxes to direct bribery of
voters. An example of evident fraud announced by the opposition
but not accepted by the authorities is that in the polling
station where the leader of the democratic political party
“Yabloko” Sergey Mitrokhin was voting, the result for “Yabloko”
was zero votes.
Nevertheless, elections in all regions were officially recognized
as valid. Seeing this, Russian citizens are loosing faith
in democratic procedures, becoming disappointed over politics
and stay absent from political and civic processes.
The International Federation of Liberal Youth notes that the
falsifications taking place on 11th of October 2009 were not
unique. Vicious practice was applied not for the first time
and not in only one region of Russia, but on all levels of
the elections. Cases of falsifications often ran to extremes:
in some regions the number of voters reached more than 100%,
in each election campaign most independent candidates and
candidates from opposition parties were withdrawn, election
results in neighboring polling stations can be differentiated
by times only because there were observers in one polling
station while the observers were turned out from another.
The International Federation of Liberal Youth further notes
that along with election fraud there are violations of other
human rights and freedoms taking place in Russia: harassment
of freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and associations,
political judicial trials and even political killings. These
authoritarian tendencies cause concern in all of the international
democratic community.
Taking into consideration the upcoming regional elections
in Russia in March 2010 the International Federation of Liberal
Youth therefore:
1. Declares that all election fraud is unacceptable for a
democratic country. If Russia calls itself a democracy it
should keep democratic values and procedures in deed and not
only in name.
2. Calls upon the Council of Europe to promote and push for
democratic changes in its member country Russia.
3. Calls upon the International community not to close its
eyes on the outrageous cases of fraud and counterfeit during
the elections in Russia and demands a strict observance of
democratic procedures.
4. Calls upon the highest authorities in Russia to turn their
attention to the fraudulence of elections and to take steps
to suppress it before it brings the society to mass riots.
5. Calls upon the IFLRY bureau to support Russian civil society
in their fight for the rights to participate in fair elections
openly and publicly using all possible legal ways.
The text of the new Manifesto and other Resolutions
will be available shortly on the IFLRY web-site www.iflry.org
The International Federation of Liberal Youth (founded
in 1947) is a worldwide organization which unites more than
100 liberal youth and student organizations and represents
more than 2.5 million of youngsters who share the values of
freedom, democracy and human rights. IFLRY headquarter is
situated in London, the UK, and it is a full member of the
Liberal International.
Youth Yabloko is an observer member in the International Federation
of Liberal Youth and turned out to be the only Russian organization
represented in IFLRY. The Federation unites about hundred
of organizations all over the World with total amount of members
more than 3 million of people.
(Translated by Ksenia Vakhrusheva)
See also:
Resolutions
of the 56th Congress of the Liberal International
Moscow
City Duma Elections, 2009
On
non-recognition of the results of the elections of October
11, 2009, and the need to investigate cases of franchise violations.
Statement of the Bureau of the Russian United Democratic Party
YABLOKO.
October 19, 2009
Election
fraud at the Moscow City Duma elections. From the Live Journal
of Igor Yakovlev, Press Secretary of the YABLOKO party
Violations
at the Moscow City Duma elections. Press Release. October
12, 2009
Human
Rights
YABLOKO
Sister-Parties
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